In the United States, 75% of Living Trusts will be totally ineffective when the Trust creator dies. Why?
Most people have and create a living will and trust in lieu of traditional Wills to dispose of their estate because they have been promised that a Trust avoids probate. Well, that’s partly true.
In fact, a Trust avoids probate only for those assets correctly titled into it!
Unlike with a Will, listing assets in a Trust does not put those assets into the Trust. Rather, assets must actually be “retitled” with the Trust name—real estate, bank and investment accounts, life insurance beneficiary forms, and so on. This is called “funding” the Trust.
In almost 20 years as an estate planning attorney, not once have I sat down with a trust-holder whose trust was fully funded (outside of my own clients). Funding a trust can be as complicated as actually creating it, and it is a great blot on estate planning attorneys generally who have not made funding part of their practice.
Have you reviewed your living trust recently? Are you sure that every singe one of your assets is titled properly in the Trust’s name?
At Celaya Law, we ensure our clients’ trusts are fully funded from the moment we create or update a trust. And because of our Lifetime Client Care, we help our clients keep their trusts funded without ever charging them another penny to do it.