Estate Planning & Living Trusts
37. Living trust summary
As you have seen, a living trust gives you far more control than any other estate plan. For example, a living trust can:
- Avoid probate at death;
- Prevent court control of assets at incapacity;
- Provide maximum privacy;
- Allow quick distribution of assets to beneficiaries; or
- Let you keep assets in the trust (where they are protected from the courts, creditors and irresponsible spending) until you want your beneficiaries to inherit;
- Prevent unintentional disinheriting; and
- Reduce or eliminate estate taxes if you are married. Your living trust can include a provision that, in 2011 and 2012, will let you and your spouse use both of your estate tax exemptions and leave up to $10 million estate tax-free to your loved ones, saving up to $1,750,000 in federal taxes. Also, some states have their own death or inheritance tax that can be reduced or eliminated with proper planning.
Now, as good as a living trust is, remember that it can only control your assets. At the beginning of this presentation, we explained that a good estate plan will let you keep control over your financial and medical decisions. Let's look at two documents that pertain to medical decisions, and see how much control they each give you.