The Benefits And Advantages Of Creating A Revocable Living Trust Las Vegas
Las Vegas Lawyers – Revocable Living Trusts
The main reason for drawing up a revocable living trust is to avoid probate after your death which will save your family a lot of time and money. If you include a revocable living trust in your estate planning you can rest assured that when you die your family will not have to deal with the ordeals and costs of probate. At The Law Office of Roger A. Giuliani, we can help you set up a trust as part of your estate plan that will provide for the administration and distribution of your assets after your death according to your wishes. And at the time of your death, our Trust Lawyers will be ready to assist your family throughout the trust administration process.
Because of the complex probate process in Nevada, a revocable living trust is an especially important option for people living in the state of Nevada. Developing an estate plan that places your assets in a trust is vital if you wish to spare your family the cost and time of going through the complex probate process. When you transfer your assets into a trust, you grant your designated successor trustee full authority upon your death to administer and distribute your assets as directed in the trust.
A revocable living trust also provides other benefits apart from avoiding probate. Until your death or incapacity, a revocable living trust allows you to retain full control of your assets with continuing involvement such as making amendments and transferring assets in and out of the trust. If for some reason you become incapacitated to a point where you are no longer capable of taking care of your affairs, your designated successor trustee will be authorized to act on your behalf, often avoiding the need for guardianship proceedings.
What is a revocable living trust?
A revocable living trust, often called a living or a revocable trust, is a legal arrangement allowing individuals to manage and distribute their assets. At the same time, they are alive and continue to have control over those assets. It is called “revocable” because the person who creates the trust, the grantor or settlor, can change or even entirely revoke (cancel) the trust during their lifetime.
What Is a Revocable Trust?
A trust that allows its terms to be changed or revoked at the grantor’s or the creator’s choice is revocable. Income is paid to the grantor during the trust’s existence; property will pass to the beneficiaries in the trust upon the grantor’s death.
Because it gives the living grantor—also known as the trustor—flexibility and income, a revocable trust is useful. The beneficiary will receive the trustor’s estate upon their passing away, and the terms of the trust may be amended.
How a Revocable Trust Works
An asset management strategy used in estate planning is a revocable trust, which looks after the grantor’s assets as they age. The property held in the trust is subject to estate taxes, and the grantor may change or revoke the trust at any time. A trustee may be designated to oversee the assets or property held in the trust, subject to the terms and conditions of the trust. Distributing the assets to their beneficiaries is another duty imposed on the trustee. After the grantor passes away, the trust stays confidential and becomes irreversible.
The main of the trust is the sum of money or assets held by the trustee to benefit another party. The expenses incurred by the trustee or the growth or decrease of the investment in the financial markets may affect the principal’s value. The trust fund is made up of all of the assets together. The trust’s beneficiary is an individual or people who stand to gain from it. Probate, the legal process of allocating a will’s assets, is avoided by a revocable trust as it retains the assets and never dies.
In a revocable trust, the grantor frequently serves as the trustee. That cannot be compared to an irreversible trust. These trusts have been the main component of most estate planning for many years.
What assets can be placed in a Revocable Living Trust?
Here are some common types of assets that can be placed in a Revocable Living Trust:
- Real Estate: This includes your primary residence, vacation house, rental properties, and undeveloped land. Transferring your home into a trust can help streamline the transfer of ownership to your heirs and potentially avoid the need for probate.
- Financial Accounts: Bank accounts, savings accounts, certificates of deposit, and brokerage accounts can be titled in the name of your trust. It ensures that the assets held in these accounts are managed according to your wishes.
- Life Insurance Policies: You can name the trust as the beneficiary of your life insurance policies or transfer ownership to the trust.
- Personal Property: Tangible personal property, such as artwork, jewelry, collectibles, furniture, and vehicles, can be placed in the trust. It simplifies passing these items to heirs and can help avoid disputes.
- Retirement Accounts: While it’s less common to place retirement accounts like IRAs or 401(k)s directly into the trust, you can name the trust as a beneficiary to control the distribution of these assets after your death.
- Mortgage Notes: If you have mortgage notes that you hold as investments, you can place them in a trust. However, it’s essential to ensure that the terms of the trust allow for the management of debt obligations.
- Personal Loans: If you’ve lent money to others, you can document those loans in the trust for clarity on repayment terms.
- Personal Debt: While not typically recommended, you can place your debt in a trust, but this can be more complex and may require legal guidance.
Working with an experienced estate planning attorney is important to fund your Revocable Living Trust properly.
How to Establish a Revocable Living Trust
Like a guidebook, a revocable living trust specifies how your assets will be handled after your death. Your assets do not need to go through the probate process if placed in a trust. In order to create a revocable living trust, you must be an adult with mental capacity. For this, three steps are needed.
- Assign a trustee to oversee and manage the grantor’s (you) property by putting in writing a declaration or agreement.
- Assign a responsible adult, trust company, or bank as your trustee. Throughout your lifetime, you can also serve as a trustee.
- Put your assets—real estate, bank accounts, and investments—into a trust.
You do not own those assets; they now belong to the trust. Since it serves as a revocable living trust, even if the assets no longer belong to you, you can still manage them while living.
The trust is subject to modification at any time. The assets themselves do not pass from the trust into the beneficiaries until after your death; any income generated by the trust’s assets is taxable and goes to you.
Creating a Revocable Living Trust
The law offices of Roger A Giuliani, our expert trust lawyers are dedicated to the appropriation of asset protection and estate planning. Our comprehensive services include preparing a ‘pour-over’ Will for your trust as well as the required powers of attorney for health care to ensure that your interests are protected on all fronts. Below are some of the steps we can help you with when setting up your revocable living trust:
• Create and Design the Trust
Our professional trust lawyers will help you design your trust to administer and distribute your assets when you pass away according to your personal wishes. Creating a trust will allow you to have greater flexibility in the way you manage your estate. For example, you can draft a trust to allow the beneficiaries to enjoy your trust property while young for their support, education, and health as directed by your nominated trustee after your death. You can then direct the outright distribution of your assets once the beneficiaries have reached an age where they are older and more mature.
• Funding the Trust
The next step will be to transfer the title of appropriate assets to the trust. The first step of developing the trust is important in and of itself; however, it is just as important to ensure that real action is taken to ensure that your assets will be directly controlled by the trust when you pass away.
Revocable Trust vs. Irrevocable Living Trust
A revocable living trust has the advantage over an irrevocable living trust in that it can be altered or revoked at any time. As long as you are the trustee, you can amend and modify decisions as you believe fit. For instance, you can amend a revocable living trust if you want to change the beneficiary after it has been established.
On the other hand, an irrevocable living trust has restrictions on what can be done once it is created. Usually, you need the consent of each person in the trust in order to alter or amend it. Beneficiaries might also need to give their signature approval in order for the modification to be made.
The related trust taxes represent another significant distinction between the two kinds of trusts. The trust’s assets remain yours in a revocable trust. Any income derived from trust assets is still your responsibility; these taxes are recorded on your individual tax return. It is not the same as an irreversible trust in which your assets are no longer held. Trust assets are subject to any taxes that are owed.
Will vs. Revocable Trust
Although a living trust provides many of the same benefits as a will, these two legal documents cover different periods in the grantor’s life. When someone is alive, when they become incapacitated, or if they pass away, their assets are protected by a revocable living trust. A living will merely takes care of a person’s assets after death.
A further advantage of living trusts is that they stay out of probate court. Living wills could lead to a dispute in court. Moreover, a livelihood will turn into a public record, and there needs to be more privacy in how assets are distributed. This level of secrecy is increased with a living trust.
When creating a living trust, one must name a trust administrator who will administer the trust until minors below the age of 18 can receive an inheritance. However, individuals under 18 may be designated to receive assets directly. Furthermore, making a swell with a will is typically cheaper and more manageable.
Advantages of Living Trust
The primary benefit of creating a living trust is avoiding probate, but it’s also an excellent choice because of its flexibility and privacy protection features.
Probate Avoidance
When you pass away, your property is legally transferred through the probate process. It entails going through several stages to submitting documents to a probate court or processes if you’ve got assets or property in multiple states.
Creating an RLT prevents costly probate proceedings, allowing assets to be distributed to beneficiaries more quickly. Property mentioned in a trust usually supersedes property named in your will, saving you money by avoiding the expensive legal system.
Changeable and Flexible
The living trust gives you the freedom to, at your option, alter the trust agreement while you’re still living.
Privacy Preservation
A revocable trust is a wise option for individuals worried about maintaining the privacy of documents and information regarding their assets after death. Your estate could become an open book due to the probate process that the wills go through because any documents filed into it become public records accessible to everyone.
Eliminate Estate Challenges
Upon your death, the standard can cause family disputes and be contested for change by any family. You can explicitly disinherit anyone who challenges your wishes in a post after your death by utilizing a trust.
Asset Segregation
Married couples who have significant separate property that they purchased before getting married may find this useful. These assets can be kept apart from the community property assets with the aid of the trust.
Assignment of Guardianship/Durable Power of Attorney
To protect your minor children, you can utilize a living trust to help limit the guardian’s expenses. It can also permit someone else to act on your behalf in the event that you become disabled and require assistance in making decisions. In the event that you become incapacitated or incompetent, the trust can designate your trustee to manage it and your financial matters automatically; a durable power of attorney is not needed.
Continuous Management
Hiring a qualified trustee to look after your property makes it possible for the wealth you’ve amassed to grow for several generations. If you’d like, you can restrict the amount of withdrawals to just your income, except for certain emergencies.
Estate Tax Minimization
Although the RLT alone is not a very effective tax minimization instrument, the trust documentation can have provisions that allow for the transfer of wealth in the case of your death by creating a credit shelter trust. When a substantial estate exceeds the total estate tax exclusion amounts, the CST is beneficial for lowering estate taxes.
Disadvantages of Living Trust
The creation of a revocable living trust has several benefits but also some disadvantages.
Planning Expenses
The expense of establishing a trust may vary based on where you live, but it requires significant assistance from an estate planning attorney.
Maintaining Trust Records and Books
And the work is still ongoing once you’ve established the trust. Most individuals must review it annually and make any necessary modifications (trusts do not automatically react to altered circumstances, such as divorce or the birth of a child). It is advisable to take into account the additional burden of guaranteeing that any future assets are perpetually registered with the trust and giving other experts access to the trust documentation so they can examine the responsibilities and authority of the trustee.
Re-Titling of Property
Property must be retitled in the trust’s name once it is established. That takes more time, and fees may be involved in processing title changes.
Minimal Asset Protection
Contrary to popular belief, revocable living trusts provide relatively little protection for your assets if you maintain an ownership interest—for example, by designating yourself as a trustee.
Administrative Expenses
A bank or trust company named trustee would likely charge additional professional costs, such as trustee fees and investment advisory.
No Tax Break
Despite your hard work, a revocable trust will not provide you with a tax benefit. The trust’s assets are still liable to creditors and legal action, and they will continue to pay taxes on their income and gains.
Unpredicted Problems
Difficulties like Subchapter S stock, title insurance, and foreign real estate can give rise to various new challenges. If you don’t fully inform your spouse about the conditions and intent of the trust, further problems may arise.
Pros and Cons of Revocable Trust
Here are some pros and cons of the revocable trust.
Pros
- It avoids the possibly costly probate process.
- It allows a decedent more privacy over the disposition of assets.
- It may result in better long-term asset management and wealth continuity.
- May reduce or cut estate taxes by using specific provisions
Cons
- Results in increased upkeep and administrative expenses
- Require an ongoing (at least yearly) review plan
- It does not reduce taxes by itself.
- Unique assets may face administrative difficulties.
Who Owns Property in a Revocable Living Trust?
The grantor for a revocable living trust retains ownership of the assets and is still responsible for any associated taxes and reporting on their personal tax return. With an irrevocable living trust, the assets are no longer owned by the individual, which is different.
Is Trust Better to a Will?
An intricate and costly plan for the beneficiary’s assets is a trust, which can offer a strategy throughout the beneficiary’s lifetime and after their passing. A will can frequently be sufficient for those with little assets or those without a complex plan to divide their assets after death. A trust is wiser for larger estates having more intricate granting requirements.
Why do you need an Estate Planning Attorney for your Revocable Living Trust?
You may need an Estate Planning Attorney for your Revocable Living Trust for several important reasons:
- Legal Expertise: An attorney’s legal expertise is crucial to ensure that your Revocable Living Trust complies with applicable laws and regulations, helping you avoid legal complications.
- Customization: Each person’s situation is unique, and an attorney can tailor your trust to meet your specific needs and estate planning goals.
- Reducing Tax Liability: Minimizing tax liability can significantly impact the value of your estate and the financial well-being of your beneficiaries. An attorney can help you implement tax-saving strategies.
- Avoiding Common Pitfalls: Estate planning can be complex, and an attorney can guide you to avoid common mistakes that could lead to unintended consequences or legal issues.
- Probate Avoidance: One of the primary benefits of a Revocable Living Trust is the ability to avoid probate, and an attorney can ensure your trust is structured correctly to achieve this goal efficiently.
An estate planning attorney is essential for your revocable living trust. Their guidance can help you create a compelling and legally compliant estate plan that ensures your assets are distributed according to your wishes and minimizes potential issues for your beneficiaries.
Contact Us
Our lawyers at The Law Office of Roger A. Giuliani are ready to answer any questions you may have and help you take the important steps towards creating a revocable living trust. We are open five days a week during office hours and also offer after-hours consultations by appointment. Contact us today to arrange a free, 30 minute, in-office consultation to discuss the creation of your Will or trust.
For more information on how https://probateattorneyvegas.com/ can help you with the revocable living trust, please contact us at (702) 388-9800, or visit us here:
The Law Office of Roger A. Giuliani, P.C.
500 N Rainbow Blvd #300, Las Vegas, NV 89107
