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Three Reasons to Use a Living Trust

Posted by Chris Peterson | Jun 11, 2016 | 0 Comments

Three Reasons to Use a Living Trust

three-reason-to-use-living-trustWills are nice to have and they do enable you to give certain possessions and your estate to individual family members after your death.  But if pressed to choose between wills and living trusts, our Kingwood Living Trust Attorneys believe that a living trust is a better option.  A living trust may be the single most important gift you may give your family members.  There are several reasons for this but we usually begin with the top three reasons to use a living trust.

Avoids the hassles of probate.

Probate, as many of you know, is a long, drawn out process that occurs when someone dies and the estate receives its list of debts.  The executor must work to pull together the accounts and properties, pay debts, and then disburse the estate according to the wishes laid out in the will.  Because of how this must be handled legally, the probate period can often be quite lengthy (and costly).

Helps with incapacity.

A will does not address incapacity, and powers of attorney don't necessarily fill the gap since banks in Texas are not required to honor them. You want to protect your loved ones and ensure that they are able to pay bills, live in their home, and use property that you shared unhindered by court hearings and delays if you should be incapacitated.  This is one of the best arguments for a revocable Living Trust that can be made.  It can enable an older couple to have successor trustees such as their children on the trust to make decisions should one or both become incapacitated.  When coupled with appropriate medical documents, the Living Trust is the best possible method of organizing an estate with the most flexibility for incapacity.

Easier resolution of an estate.

This is really what it's all about. Most people do not want to leave a mess to their children.  Often they do exactly that.  Most do not share a complete financial picture with their children or family members. Thus, many kids don't know where their parents' bank accounts are located, whether they have life insurance or how much, where the retirement accounts are held and what the value of those accounts are, etc.  Instead of making your children the private investigators of your estate, it is better to transfer the assets you have into a living trust which organizes them in one place and gives the successor trustee immediate access to those accounts when you pass away – no waiting for a probate hearing.  In this way, a living trust speed up the resolution of an estate and simplifies the process for the children or loved ones.

We are Kingwood Living Trust Attorneys.  It's what we focus on.  It's what we do.  If you are considering your estate and end of life decisions we would like to speak with you.  It is our belief that families deserve the best possible protections that the law will allow.  We can explain the benefits of a living trust, how it works, and provide answers that can save your family thousands of dollars in the long run and a lot of headache.

Peterson Law Group – Main Office

416 Tarrow St.

College Station TX 77840

(979) 703-7014

Peterson Law Group – Kingwood Office

4501 Magnolia Cove Drive, Suite 201

Kingwood, TX 77345

(281) 609-0664

About the Author

Chris Peterson

Chris Peterson is the owner of Peterson Law Group. He practices primarily in the areas of wills, trusts and estate planning; probate and trust administration; elder law; and business law. Chris is also the owner of Brazos 1031 Exchange Company.

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