Revocable Living Trusts

People often get scared of the word “trust,” thinking of it as a highly sophisticated instrument. However, a trust is simply a type of relationship people enter into on a regular basis. A simple example of a trust would be if you were to give a friend money to pick something up from the store for your children. In this example you are the trustmaker, your friend is the trustee, and your children are the beneficiaries. Sometimes attorneys will draft complex agreements to outline the terms of the trust relationship, but at the core it is that simple.

Revocable living trusts are the most common type of trust. With a revocable living trust, the person making the trust often wears all three hats (trustmaker, trustee, and beneficiary) during his or her lifetime. It is often helpful to think of this type of relationship as a bucket with instructions on it. A person can put property into their bucket, take property out of their bucket, or change the instructions. If that person dies or becomes incapacitated, a successor trustee simply takes the bucket and manages and distributes the property in the bucket according to the instructions. Simply put, a revocable living trust allows complete flexibility while avoiding probate and allowing a loved one to take control of a person’s assets if he or she becomes incapacitated and can no longer act for him or herself.

The instructions provided with this type of planning can be simple or highly complex. Elliot works hard to know and understand each one of his clients so he can customize plans to protect families and pass each client’s most important values on to future generations.