St. Petersburg Revocable Living Trust Attorney
A revocable living trust is a popular estate planning tool, but not everyone should have a living trust. Before jumping into Do-It-Yourself estate planning, connect with an experienced attorney to discuss your objectives and which estate planning tools are best suited to your goals. A revocable living trust has attractive features but is not the best choice for all clients. At Fisher & Wilsey, our St. Petersburg revocable living trust attorneys can help you think through options and draft any legal document you need.
What is a Revocable Living Trust?
At its most basic, a trust is a fiduciary relationship where a trustee manages assets in a trust for the benefit of one or more people. A trust has at least three parties:
- Grantor: This person creates the trust and funds it.
- Trustee: This individual or company manages the trust assets.
- Beneficiary: This person reaps the benefit of the trust.
With a revocable living trust, you can serve in all three roles during your lifetime. You then name a successor trustee to take over when you pass and identify who will benefit from the trust once you are gone.
A living trust is “revocable” because you can modify it or unwind it altogether while living. By contrast, an irrevocable living trust cannot be modified easily, if at all.
Advantages of a Revocable Living Trust
Many individuals fund this type of trust and use it the same way they would use a will. When creating the trust document, you can decide who will inherit the property while you die. Because the trust is revocable, you maintain full control over trust assets while living. If you want to take something out of the trust, you can do so without anyone else’s permission.
Why would you create this trust when you could just use a will? Here are some reasons:
- A trust does not have to go through probate. This means your beneficiaries can gain access to assets or income much faster, which is an important consideration.
- Because the trust is not probated, it is not public. You can maintain privacy about your assets and net worth.
- You can provide for pets in your living trust, but you can’t leave assets to an animal through a will.
- You probably will not gain any tax advantages, however, because the trust is revocable. It will be included in your taxable estate and subject to any applicable taxes.
We strongly encourage clients to meet with a attorney. Even if you have a living trust, there are other elements of an estate plan to create, including the continued use of a will. Our objective as estate planning attorneys is to ensure you have all the pieces in place and revise if circumstances change.
Speak with Our Estate Planning Attorneys
Fisher & Wilsey believes in empowering our clients to create the right estate plan for their personal circumstances. We are eager to hear from you, so call to speak to one of our St. Petersburg revocable living trusts attorneys.
