Online Living Trust FAQ - Part Two
By Robert Olson
In this next article in the series, I will address another online living trust question I get asked frequently in my law practice.
Question #4 - Are there drawbacks to using a living trust?
We are big proponents of the Revocable Living Trust at our law firm. This is the same whether I am preparing the documents for clients or it is an online living trust. There are two main drawbacks however. First is the cost. If you have an attorney prepare a revocable trust for you expect to pay thousands of dollars.
The second drawback is the work you must do to fund the trust. This can be a great deal of paperwork. You will need to either transfer title of your assets or change beneficiary to the trust. In some cases such as with cash value life insurance you may do both. Drafting the trust itself is the same amount of work as drafting the Will. But with the Will you would rarely change title of your assets. If you fail to change the title or beneficiary of the asset to the trust this asset may, depending on how it is currently titled, go through the probate court process and the main reason for creating the trust, avoiding probate, is lost.
Even though I make my living from drafting trusts for clients, I suggest that if your total estate value is less than the federal estate tax threshold of $3.5 million and any lower threshold imposed by your state you do it yourself. The living trust is in most cases the best way to plan your estate and using an online living trust product can save you thousands of dollars. We suggest that you do it yourself and look for a book or course that not only teaches you about the trust and its process but gives you samples on what your trust and all the supporting documents should look like.
Robert Olson is the lead attorney at DIY Lawyer. A website dedicated to helping people do their own legal work including drafting a Living Trust. They offer an e-book with a money back guarantee titled the Living Trust Annotated. This book teaches you to draft your own Living Trust for a fraction of what you would pay an attorney. With the purchase of the e-book you also receive a free half hour phone consultation with a DIY Lawyer to answer your questions about the book. You can read about it at DIY Lawyer's Living Trust Annotated.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Robert_Olson
http://EzineArticles.com/?Online-Living-Trust-FAQ---Part-Two&id=1854808
No comments:
Post a Comment