Estate Planning Academy Episode 13: I have a Revocable Living Trust, Now What?
The Biggest Mistake
The biggest mistake I see with a revocable living trust is creating it, doing some funding, but not finishing the job…
Just because you have a Trust, doesn’t mean it is a setup and forget thing
A Trust is a “living” document. In addition to the initial setup, a Trust needs to be maintained and reviewed from time to time.
Your Trust Must be Funded
- An empty Trust doesn’t do you any good
- An empty Trust is called a “dry Trust.” A Trust is required to have some property in it.
- If you let the Trust run out of property, it becomes invalid!
- Property not in your Trust is subject to Probate
What to put into your Revocable Living Trust
- Your Home and other real estate. At DeWitt Law, we always create a deed to move your home into trust
- Your Savings Accounts
- Your CDs
- Your Checking Accounts
- Your bank can help make the changes of ownership
- Non-Retirement investment accounts
- Stocks
- Bonds
- All personal property which is anything but real estate
- But not cars and boats
- At DeWitt Law, we move all your personal property to your Trust
When to name your trust as beneficiary
- I always recommend that your Trust be at least the final beneficiary on your
- Life Insurance
- Retirement Accounts (IRAs and 401(k)’s)
- Any other accounts that need special handling and are subject to IRS rules
- If you do this, then as a couple you make sure the money flows into the trust and is distributed, especially for minors, as you want