Tag Archives: living trust
Trust Funding: Top 5 Overlooked Assets
The cornerstone of the vast majority of estate plans that I create for our clients is the revocable living trust. They help clients achieve a wide array of estate planning goals by providing a comprehensive set of instructions for managing, investing and distributing property for the trust’s named beneficiaries. But these instructions only control… Read More »
The Four Phases of a Revocable Living Trust
Sometimes the best way to understand a concept is to break it down into different phases over time. I think this construct works well for understanding estate planning with a revocable living trust, which serves varying goals and purposes at each different stage. For a basic primer on revocable living trusts, read here. The… Read More »
Updating Living Trusts: Amendment vs. Restatement
One of the features of a revocable living trust is that it is easy to amend. When a trust is created, the person(s) who creates the trust (the “grantor”) will typically reserve full rights to amend or restate the terms at any time in a writing delivered to the trustee. This power to amend… Read More »
6 Ways to Designate Minor Children as Life Insurance Beneficiaries: the Good, Bad and Ugly
Many new or expecting parents wisely include obtaining life insurance policies on their to-do list. Protecting the financial security and future of minor, young adult and disabled children from a parent’s untimely death is critically important. But, selecting and obtaining the right policy is only half of the equation. It is equally critical to… Read More »
Pot Trusts: More Equal Than Equal?
When I ask parents of young children how they want to divide their estate among their children, the answer is usually “equally”. Sounds fair. In most cases, we desire to treat our children equally. But, particularly for young families, if you either fail to plan or if you only create a simple “upon my… Read More »