Why We Started a Living Trust Instead of Just a Will

Are you wondering about the benefits of starting a revocable living trust vs just a will?

For years, my wife and I put off what we know we have to do as responsible adults and parents, and create a will.

Without a will, the courts decide what happens to everything you leave behind: Your kids, your money, the house, the family dog, … everything!

Ask yourself this simple question: If my spouse and I were to get hit by a car tonight, is there anything in place to protect all of those things I just mentioned?

If the answer is “no”, then you absolutely need to sit down and do a little estate planning.

I know … it’s hard.  It’s not fun to think about times when you’re not here anymore.  It took me battling cancer and a few other scary events for us to finally call a lawyer and make it happen.

But it’s done now, and I’m glad we did it.  Not just because we finally created our will, but because we also found out that to really protect your assets, you need take your estate planning a step further and create a trust too.

Here are all the important things you need to know about a living trust vs a will.

Why a Will Doesn’t Do Much for You

This may come as a surprise to you, but a will doesn’t do a whole lot for you.

It’s necessary; don’t get me wrong.  A will tells the courts how your assets should be divided up and where things should go.  But in our modern times (as I’ve come to learn), estate planning is a whole lot more complicated than that now.

The biggest problem with wills is that they must pass through a convoluted process called “probate”.  This is where the courts analyze your will and decide whether or not to follow your wishes.  This presents some major problems:

1. It can take a lot of time. The probate process can go on for months.  3 to 6 months on average.  That’s a lot of lost time for your loved ones.
2. It can cost a lot of money. In order to successfully navigate your way through probate, you’re going to need proper legal representation.  And that’s going to cost your estate or your loved ones whatever a lawyer charges.  Think along the lines of something like $250 per hour!  Multiply this by 3-6 months, and that’s a ton of expense!
3. The will can be challenged. Despite your best and final wishes, your survivors can challenge your will.  These could be your children, ex-wife, other family members, or even business partners who felt like they weren’t getting what they deserved.
4. The will becomes public knowledge. This is perhaps one of the scariest reasons for me.  Once a will passes through probate, it becomes public record.  This means that if you leave one million dollars to your teenage children, guess what?  Everyone knows!  A very real and scary scenario is that every con-artist from miles around will be looking for a way to become romantic with your kids as they come f age; just so that they can get a piece of that inheritance.  It’s disgraceful, but it happens.
5. Little protection for minors. Another thing you may not be thinking about is that if you have minor children, a will really doesn’t do much to protect their inheritance until they’re at an age where they are responsible enough to know what to do with it.  Could you imagine your 13 year old child inheriting your entire life savings?  Even at 18, this could be bad news.  I don’t care how responsible they are.  It’s highly likely that some bad financial decisions will be made.

So if a will doesn’t help us in these areas, then what does?  Enter a “trust”.

Why We Choose to Create a Living Trust Instead

A trust (or more specifically a revocable living trust) is kind of like a “super will”. When you create a trust, it’s officially its own legal entity, just like a business or company. This is a very important difference for a few reasons:

1. Bypass the probate process. In the event that you and your spouse were to pass, the assets in the trust pass on to the beneficiaries according to the instructions of the trust.  This is much different from a will because there is minimal court intervention.  You get to skip all the headache and expense of probate.
2. Privacy. The trust is private, and therefore no one except your lawyer, successor trustee, and beneficiaries know what it contains or what the final wishes are.  For this reason, a trust is also much more difficult to challenge.
3. Harder to challenge. Compared to a will, the content of the trust is somewhat bulletproof. If your survivors wanted to try to challenge it, they would either not be successful or have a much more difficult time attempting to do so.
4. Financial protection for minors. Perhaps for us, the benefits to your minor children add the greatest amount of value.  Again, with a will only, the minor would receive their inheritance all at once. However with the trust, you can leave instructions for how the money can and should be distributed.  For example, you could decide to distribute 1/3 of the money for when they go to college, 1/3 when they turn age 25 (perhaps when they may want to get married or buy a house), and the rest when they turn 30 (maybe when they might start having children). This would help better ensure the longevity of their inheritance.

Protect More Than Just Your Money

Keep in mind that a trust can be used to protect and pass on more than just your savings.

For example, your home is a financial asset that you will want to one pass on as well.  A trust on property will take effect as soon as it is created.  This way you can dictate whether the home should be sold or if it should be maintained until your children are old enough to inherit it and decide for themselves.

The same protection could also be applied to your business, vehicles, recreation vehicles, jewelry, vacation homes, and anything else you own of value.

Do You Give Up Your Assets?

No, not with a revocable trust.  Your assets are all yours, and you can revoke or amend the trust at any time.

(There is another family of trusts called “irrevocable trusts” where you do lose access to any assets you put into them.  But these are used more to help protect against Medicaid “spend-down” – a whole other topic that I will surely write a post about.)

Does A Trust Cost More?

Yes.  From calling around 7 different lawyers in our area, the average price to create a trust was $1,000 to $1,500.  Compared to a simple will at $300, that’s quite a bit more expensive.

BUT, again, compare that $1,500 trust to the price of 3-6 months of probate at $250/hour.  Now which one looks like a deal?

Estate Planning is Part of Retirement Planning

So there you have it.  If you thought retirement planning was the last leg of financial planning that you’d ever have to deal with, as it turns out, it’s not.  There’s a whole other level of estate planning.

However, like retirement planning, if you educate yourself on the basics and take action, it’s not too tough.  You can save your loved ones a ton of trouble and make sure the assets you’ve spent your entire life acquiring get to where you wish they would go.  As a responsible spouse or parent, this is just something you have to do.

Readers – How many of you have compared a revocable living trust vs will?  Why did you decide to go with one or the other?  What advantages and disadvantages do you see to either?

Photo credits: Flickr, Unsplash