Do you have a trust?

[Jack_Sparrow]

Has anyone tried to create an online Will. Maybe a simple one thats says upon death give everything to person X.

[Antares]

Revocable trust plus wills, goal to avoid probate and provide quicker access to funds outside probate for our minor child. Probably wouldn’t have crested the trust If kids were all grown. It was $5200 two years ago for the trust, two wills, POAs, etc

[G]

Trust needed mostly at the beginning with little ones until adulthood. Less so during the middle so one can probably extinguish the outdated trust after 20 years and get by with a pour over will into a simple trust -- until the estate gets big enough and your grandkids come about and assets abound mixed in with business interests and vacation homes. Then a new trust probably beneficial to really things clearly done and protected within the family.

That's what I believe trusts work the best -- keeps the outside interests at bay by constructing clear funds commitments to specific people. -- if one wants that level of influence/protection from the grave.

So what you're saying is that I can just wait another ten years....

[StarTrekDoc]

Trust needed mostly at the beginning with little ones until adulthood. Less so during the middle so one can probably extinguish the outdated trust after 20 years and get by with a pour over will into a simple trust -- until the estate gets big enough and your grandkids come about and assets abound mixed in with business interests and vacation homes. Then a new trust probably beneficial to really things clearly done and protected within the family.

That's what I believe trusts work the best -- keeps the outside interests at bay by constructing clear funds commitments to specific people. -- if one wants that level of influence/protection from the grave.

[G]

Call me.

It's on the list.

[jfoxcpacfp]

Newton's first law.

Call me.

[G]

Why?

Newton's first law.

[DocNextDoor]

I'm not a lawyer but my understanding of a revocable trust is that it has no effect on estate tax on those assets in the trust, it just determines how the assets will be distributed and keeps them out of probate. To keep the assets from being taxed at death they need to be put into another type of trust that keeps them out of the estate (like an irrevocable trust etc...). Correct me if I'm wrong.

Yes I think that’s right, too many years ago setting it up to remember the details (means it’s probably time for a review). It does convert to irrevocable and other divisions to the kids on death of second spouse. I think that’s where the estate tax is avoided (to my grandkids)

[dennis]

Set up our revocable trust and wills years ago, back when the estate tax exemption was 1M. Cost us ~5K.
I highly anticipate a drastic reduction in the exemption back down to 3-5M in the future so it will be of significant beneficial to the kids when we reach our expiration date.

I'm not a lawyer but my understanding of a revocable trust is that it has no effect on estate tax on those assets in the trust, it just determines how the assets will be distributed and keeps them out of probate. To keep the assets from being taxed at death they need to be put into another type of trust that keeps them out of the estate (like an irrevocable trust etc...). Correct me if I'm wrong.

[jfoxcpacfp]

"living trust" has literally been on my to-do list for almost a decade now....

Why?

[DocNextDoor]

Set up our revocable trust and wills years ago, back when the estate tax exemption was 1M. Cost us ~5K.
I highly anticipate a drastic reduction in the exemption back down to 3-5M in the future so it will be of significant beneficial to the kids when we reach our expiration date.

[jz-]

Our trusts ($5000) and later amendment ($450) allow the best sleep and satisfaction of any financial task ever.

[VagabondMD]

We have a revocable qualified spousal trust, which was created in 2019, to replaced individual trusts which were never properly funded. We updated our wills and such, I think it cost about $4000, including some help moving our assets into the trust.

[White.Beard.Doc]

We have a will that creates trusts upon death. The heirs each get access to 1/3 of their share every 5 years x3, so the money is distributed over 10 years. The trusts protect the funds from divorce or litigation, and the 1/3 x3 hopefully allows some learning to take place if there are financial mistakes made by the heirs.

We spent a flat fee of 3.5k to set up our estate plan. The actual cost would have been more than double that, but the Harvard law trained top estate attorney wanted to get us in the door, so they agreed to a flat fee for initial estate planning with wills and associated documents. They are advising more complex planning to give us a plan that is “better” than our current “good, basic” estate plan. But none of this really matters until both of us die, and the actuarial tables predict that that is very likely some decades off in the future. If we were both to die in a car crash tomorrow, the current plan is good enough. I would imagine that in another decade or so, as we get older, as the assets continue to grow, we will likely pay for a more complex plan to save more estate taxes. But I can also imagine living in a different state 10 or 15 years from now.

For us, the important thing was to start the process, to have a reasonable plan in place. That we have done. This year, I am working on creating an excellent succession plan for the medically related business that I started. The business has grown tremendously in value and makes up roughly half of our net worth.

[Cubicle]

I need both a will & trust. I'm aware!!! Don't rush me, I'm on the verge of a breakthrough I can feel it.

*sigh* I need to get serious about this.