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Tips for Creating a Michigan Revocable Living Trust
A revocable living trust is an essential estate planning arrangement that allows your family to avoid the probate process if you die. It allows you to transfer your assets into the trust, and you outline how the assets will be distributed to the beneficiaries.
When creating a Michigan revocable living trust, you will have to name the successor trustee who will manage and ensure the assets in the trust are distributed as outlined in the living trust. With a notarized living trust, your family will save money and time that could have otherwise gone through the probate process.
What is a Michigan Living Trust?
A revocable living trust is an estate planning tool that gives estate owners control over their assets when alive and after death. You can name yourself the trustee and a successor trustee who will manage the trust assets after your death. Additionally, you include details of how the assets will be distributed to the beneficiaries.
The good thing about a revocable living trust is that it can be revoked/canceled, or modified to suit your new terms or wishes. And you are the only person who can modify your living trust.
How to Fund a Living Trust in Michigan?
Funding a revocable living trust in Michigan means transferring ownership of assets owned by the grantor as an individual to the trustee of the revocable living trust. You can appoint yourself as the trustee while you are alive and have a designated trustee after your death.
Do You Need a Revocable Living Trust?
A living trust is an essential estate planning document. Before you create or fill out a revocable living trust form in Michigan, you should weigh its benefits and drawbacks. First, a living trust offers maximum control over your assets when you are alive and gone. Note that you will be free to use and manage the assets listed in the trust when you are alive. After your death, your trust assets will be distributed according to your wishes as outlined in the living trust.
A living trust allows your family to easily and quickly distribute your trust assets to the mentioned beneficiaries. If you leave a will, your family must wait until the probate process's conclusion to get their inheritance. The probate process can take months or years, and the family can spend much money during that period. With a signed living trust, your heirs will receive the inheritance quickly, avoiding the costly and lengthy probate process.
As you know, a will is made public during the probate process, and people will know about your estate and how you distributed it. However, a Michigan revocable living trust provides privacy. The details of a living trust are only known by the grantor, successor trustee, beneficiaries, close family members, and friends.
It is worth noting that Michigan has adopted the Uniform Probate Code to streamline the probate process. You may not necessarily need a living trust to avoid the complicated probate process. Your beneficiaries can use an affidavit to claim your estate faster and bypass the probate process if your estate doesn't include real estate and is valued at $15,000 or less. The beneficiaries can also opt for a simplified probate process called the summary administrative proceedings.
Can a Michigan Living Trust Help You Avoid Estate Taxes?
Please note that there is no estate tax in Michigan. But you must pay federal estate taxes if your trust assets are valued at over $12 million. Again, you can save some taxes by creating a marital trust, allowing one spouse to pass the trust assets to the surviving spouse.
How to Create a Michigan Living Trust?
Creating a living trust in Michigan is pretty simple. You need to fill out a Michigan revocable living trust form and sign it before a notary public. You can get this form at Forms.legal, fill it out and download it for signing and notarizing.