-If you are looking for a perfect estate planning document, a revocable living trust is the answer. The main benefit of creating a revocable living trust is that it saves your heirs from going through the usually complicated and expensive probate.
But it remains unclear to most people the specific assets they can place in the trust. So, here is a detailed answer to this concern.
Real Estate
If you own a house, vacation home, land, and other real estate, you should put them in your living trust. This will protect the house and other real estates from probate. The more valuable your real estate properties are, the more money will likely be spent on probate. But you can always avoid the associated costs by placing your real estate in a living trust.
Securities
You can consolidate your stocks, bonds, and mutual funds investments into one big account. You can put this whole account into the revocable living trust. This means that all your securities are held in the trust, which your loved ones can inherit upon your demise.
Small Business Interests
Leaving your business out of your living trust can be a huge mistake. The business will go through probate, and running it during that time can be chaotic. So if you own a business, whether sole proprietorship, partnership, or limited liability company, ensure you include them in your living trust. This will ensure your beneficiaries manage and get the income from your businesses soon after your death.
Bank Accounts
You would want your bank account to go to the beneficiaries sooner after death. You wouldn’t want them to suffer, and you have money in your bank accounts. To facilitate that, you should include your bank accounts in the living trust and outline how the funds will be distributed.
Retirement Accounts
Your retirement account and 401(K)s hold the money you save to spend when you retire. You can add these retirement accounts to your revocable living trust.
Vehicles
Although transferring vehicle ownership to the living trust is cumbersome, it is possible. You can transfer your car or other vehicles to the trust, but you must work with a trusted and corporate insurance company to make the process easier.
Cash
You cannot transfer real cash to a living trust. But you can transfer ownership of a cash account, money market account, or certificate of deposit to the living trust. You just need to put money in a bank account and transfer it to your trust, and name person X as the beneficiary in the trust document.
Life Insurance
Having life insurance means you have already named the beneficiary to receive the proceeds after your death. In other words, the life insurance proceeds will go directly to the beneficiaries without probate. So you may not need a living trust to prevent your life insurance from going through probate. But including it in the living trust can have other benefits.
If you want to create a revocable living trust, we can assist you. We provide revocable living trust form templates for different states. All you have to do is to complete the form and sign it before a notary public to make it legal.