There are some estate planning myths in circulation, and if you buy into them you may be unnecessarily steering clear of a totally beneficial course of action. With this in mind let’s take a look at three of the myths that we have heard about revocable living trusts.
Myth # 1: Living trusts are for millionaires. If you are person of relatively ordinary means you have no use for a trust.
This is absolutely false. In fact, the super rich have concerns that are really not addressed by revocable living trusts at all.
The most common reason why people opt for revocable living trusts is because of the fact that they enable probate avoidance. Probate is a legal process that can be very time-consuming and costly.
Myth # 2: You will lose control of your assets if you place them into a revocable living trust.
The operative word to recognize here is “revocable.” Revocable living trusts are just that; you can revoke the trust entirely if you want to at any time. And, while you are still alive you can retain total control of the resources by acting as both the beneficiary and the trustee.
Myth # 3: It is too expensive to work with an estate planning lawyer to draw up a living trust.
This is another absolute fallacy. You have to state your wishes in some way, and when you use a last will rather than a trust the estate must be probated.
It is true that it is less expensive to have a last will drawn up. But, there are considerable expenses that go along with the probate process. These expenses can be exorbitant if somebody wants to challenge the will.
In the end you may well get better value for your dollar by executing a revocable living trust.
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