Trust Funding is Critical
Trust Funding Sometimes, messages need to be repeated to make sure they stick. Unfortunately, this often happens with ongoing maintenance with a revocable living trust to make sure that assets line up correctly with the overall estate plan, including the revocable living trust. Unfortunately, the “correctly” part of the reminder came in the form of […]
Is Your Suitcase Packed?
Revocable Living Trust Is your suitcase packed? When it comes to estate planning with a revocable living trust, I often use the suitcase analogy. When it comes to avoiding probate, a revocable living trust is like a suitcase. It is designed to take your things from one place to another, and there are many different […]
The Annual Trust Tune-Up
The Annual Revocable Living Trust Tune-Up A revocable living trust can be one of the best, most effective ways to plan a coordinated estate strategy to avoid probate. However, this type of planning requires some maintenance to make sure your trust is doing everything it can. Too often, people with revocable living trusts go years, […]
I’m Moving Out of State… Is My Trust Still Good?
I’m Moving Out Of State “Is my trust still good?” I get this question all the time when clients move to my state of North Carolina, or when my clients are moving to other states. The question really is “Do I need to update my estate plan?” In this video, I cover the checklist process […]
Should A Law Firm Be Your Trustee?
This is actually a question that came up in a Reddit Format, so we’re going to go ahead and go through the question and some of the comments. Executor and Alternate Trustee – “We’re working with a law firm to create a living trust. We are having a hard time choosing an executor and alternate trustee. […]
Who Should Be Your Trustee?
And The One Thing You Should NEVER Do One of the most important estate planning items on your checklist is choosing the right trustees to handle things if you become incapacitated or pass on. But how do you go about choosing them? Should you pick an attorney? Your children? Your best friend? I go through […]
The Married ABC Trust and Tax ID Numbers
A big thanks to a subscriber who sent in a question about the “Married ABC Trust” and how the tax ID numbers work. In this video, I explain how the trust works while both members of a married couple are alive, and then how the tax-saving A, B, and C subtrust “compartments” work when the […]
DIY Trust Disaster Waiting To Happen
I occasionally go on Reddit and respond to posts in the r/estateplanning section. This time, it was to help warn someone about trying to do their own trust by getting a form online. Unfortunately, they didn’t know what they didn’t know, and despite the pleas of commentators suggesting that they get a lawyer, they took […]
NFTs and Revocable Living Trusts
One of the hot new investment trends is NFTs, or Non-Fungible Tokens. Because it is so new, questions come up about how this investment is funded into a revocable living trust. In this video, I run through the basics of NFTs and how they need to be titled to work with your revocable living trust […]
EINs and Trusts
Do I Need a Tax ID Number? This question keeps coming up… “Does a trust need a separate taxpayer identification number?” It depends. In general… * Revocable Living Trusts do not need an EIN/Taxpayer ID if the Trustor(s) are still alive: As long as that person is alive, it is their trust, they are the trustees, […]