Living Wills vs. Living Trusts

A Conroe Living Trust Lawyer Explains the Different Between Living Trusts and Living Wills

While the terms “living trust” and “living will” are semantically similar, and both relate to estate planning, as will be seen, these estate planning tools serve very different purposes. A Conroe Living Trust Lawyer can help you determine whether a living trust or living will is useful to your needs, and will help you set these up if you are so inclined.

Living Wills and Their Uses

A living will is basically an advance directive for medical issues. In essence, the living will designates a person to make healthcare decisions when you are no longer able to do so, yourself. The living will can contain instructions, such as do not resuscitate orders, which direct what sorts of treatment are acceptable, and which are not.

A living will only takes effect after you have been deemed by your doctors to suffer from an irreversible condition which prevents you from making decisions for yourself regarding your health. The living will is particularly useful for individuals facing a health issue from which they are unlikely to recuperate. However, anyone can become incapacitated and unable to make health decisions if they suffer serious injury in an accident.

Living Trusts

Living wills deal with end-of-life medical issues. By contrast, living trusts provide a means of streamlining the process of distributing assets to beneficiaries after you die. Probating a will can take months after the Trustmaker dies. This means that survivors may have to wait for assets they might very much need.

When you set up the living trust, assets included become the property of the trust, and thus are not a part of the estate. You will name a trustee to pay debts and taxes, and distribute the assets from the trust.

The bottom line on comparing these two estate planning tools is that both can prove very useful to a large percentage of individuals, but they share little other commonality.

Call If You Need Further Information If you need help setting up a living will or trust, a Conroe Living Trust Lawyer can help. Peterson Law Group is dedicated to providing clients with a high standard of service. Call today at 936-337-4681.