A living trust is only beneficial to you if it has been properly funded. The establishment of a revocable living trust has become of increasing importance in recent years as more people seek to have a privacy in their estate and to avoid probate.
However, if you fail to transfer the title of the assets into the trust, you have missed out on a crucial step that could put your beneficiaries in a difficult situation. If the assets are never officially transferred into the trust with their title, this could mean they are not technically owned by the trust and therefore, still in your estate for the purposes of probate.
There are many different potential advantages associated with living trusts but these can only be accessed when you set it up the appropriate way with the support of an estate planning attorney. A successor trustee will usually take over the management of the assets and distribute them to your heirs or take other actions as outlined in the trust agreement when you put the trust together the right way. A living trust can also be very advantageous if the original owner becomes disabled.
A successor trustee will take over and begin managing those assets after being recognized by asset custodians. This transfer can be smoother than relying on a power of attorney alone. If you walk out of the estate planning attorney’s office with a living trust agreement and failed to transfer any assets inside, you’re missing out on a crucial opportunity to protect your loved ones.
