YK's most important advice: create a trust for your family

[yk9001]

My mom passed away in November. My parents did a great thing years ago and created a trust.  As the successor trustee, and executor of the will, let me tell you, it has been an absolute breeze settling the estate with the trust. Everybody asks for it, and I show them the pertinent docs..zero questions asked.

People talk about the need for a will. If your family gets along,and nobody is an asshole, the need to the will is almost miniscule compared to the need for the trust.

For you guys in your 40s or older, get a trust done now.

[Blarg]

My in laws passed away in succession and the will/trust was never modified and named my brother in law the executor. Shit still goes down in an estate sale and it all is all a matter of who is handling the estate. He was and still is a thief and my wife lost out on a lot of family heirlooms that was supposed to go to her and my sons.

You are right, a trust is the way to go but be very selective about the executor and best to make those decisions independent from what one sibling has done for you rather than which will be the most honest in the process of settling the estate. Currently my older brother is the executor of my parents estate and that will be a shit show, I have a sister just as greedy as he is.

I really don't have the fear that any one of my sons have a larcenous gene in their makeup and any of the three would be overtly fair to the point of giving up far more than they received.

[JAHV76]

8 hours ago, yk9001 said:

My mom passed away in November. My parents did a great thing years ago and created a trust.  As the successor trustee, and executor of the will, let me tell you, it has been an absolute breeze settling the estate with the trust. Everybody asks for it, and I show them the pertinent docs..zero questions asked.

People talk about the need for a will. If your family gets along,and nobody is an asshole, the need to the will is almost miniscule compared to the need for the trust.

For you guys in your 40s or older, get a trust done now.

A trust and will are important to have done. My dad passed away 10 plus years ago and had a long time live in girlfriend which turned into a painful lawsuit because he didn't have a trust or will. I really didn't want to have any part of their personal situation but because I was his sole heir I had to carry out the probate process. They are also important if you have kids that you want to set parameters around inheritance and whomever you want to have raise your children. 

[Lou]

4 hours ago, yk9001 said:

My mom passed away in November. My parents did a great thing years ago and created a trust.  As the successor trustee, and executor of the will, let me tell you, it has been an absolute breeze settling the estate with the trust. Everybody asks for it, and I show them the pertinent docs..zero questions asked.

People talk about the need for a will. If your family gets along,and nobody is an asshole, the need to the will is almost miniscule compared to the need for the trust.

For you guys in your 40s or older, get a trust done now.

couldn't agree more.  a Living Trust is a very easy process. 

i would even go so far as to say if you are in your 30s, get it done now. 

edit: 1 thing to remember, even if you get along great with your siblings,children,etc., they may have a spouse putting ideas in their head that you are unaware of 

Edited January 29, 2017 by Lou

[Lou]

4 hours ago, Blarg said:

I really don't have the fear that any one of my sons have a larcenous gene in their makeup and any of the three would be overtly fair to the point of giving up far more than they received.

I recall Mr and Mrs Menendez saying this 

[wopphil]

59 minutes ago, Lou said:

couldn't agree more.  a Living Trust is a very easy process. 

i would even go so far as to say if you are in your 30s, get it done now. 

edit: 1 thing to remember, even if you get along great with your siblings,children,etc., they may have a spouse putting ideas in their head that you are unaware of 

And I think (and I am sure YK can confirm this) there are certain taxes that apply when you have no trust, such as in connection with the sale of property. The cost of the trust could be a fraction of the taxes/fees paid.

[Tank]

1 hour ago, Lou said:

couldn't agree more.  a Living Trust is a very easy process. 

edit: 1 thing to remember, even if you get along great with your siblings,children,etc., they may have a spouse putting ideas in their head that you are unaware of 

Guy I sing with went through this and was completely screwed by family. He, his wife and son lived with his MIL in her house for something like fifteen years. MIL died and before the day was over, his wife's family circled like great whites around a bunch of one-fin'd harbor seals. The worst was an ex-BIL who wanted a piece of everything. He showed up the next and with another relative started boxing up everything in sight, including stuff that belonged to my buddy and his family. They were indiscriminate and off the rails as there was a provision in the will that the house be sold and the proceeds divided amongst her children. All civility disappeared and the amount of anger toward each other and disappearance of reason made the death just that much worse. My buddy and his family were essentially forced out of the house and into an apartment. This was four or five years ago, and to my knowledge, the house still hasn't sold. 

[yk9001]

This is not my area of expertise,  but I don't know of the tax difference between trust assets and probate assets.  Certainly if the estate is under five million.  Point is that if the assets are not in a trust, it becomes exponentially harder for the heirs to get the assets.

[Blarg]

6 hours ago, Lou said:

I recall Mr and Mrs Menendez saying this 

Well,  the advantage I have is, one,  I'm not Hispanic and two,  I don't own a shotgun. 

Nate owns a shotgun. 

#poornate

[Jason]

Yep. Same when my in laws passed away. The trust made it very easy and no probate. The only issue was my father in law leaving a life insurance policy to my 8 year old daughter. That was a nightmare. 

[Lou]

4 hours ago, Jason said:

Yep. Same when my in laws passed away. The trust made it very easy and no probate. The only issue was my father in law leaving a life insurance policy to my 8 year old daughter. That was a nightmare. 

why? 

[Jason]

58 minutes ago, Lou said:

why? 

Since she is a minor receiving the money we had to go to court to establish guardianship of her estate and had to put the money into a blocked account until she is 18. I wish the insurance company would have told my father in law what the process is. He would have just left it to us with instructions.

http://www.insure.com/life-insurance/naming-life-insurance-beneficiaries.html

[yk9001]

My parents had $4,000 in a B of A checking account that predated their trust.  It wasn't included in their trust.  Its only a small exaggeration to say that I have spent more time trying to extract that non-trust 4 grand, than I have administering the rest of the estate.

 

Stop what you are doing, call an attorney, create a trust (and an ironclad will, since it looks like a bunch of you come from white trash families who don't know how to share properly), and put all your assets in the trust.  Its the best thing you can do for your next of kin.

[Jay]

This thread has gotten me thinking about this issue. Thanks for posting.

 

[Adam]

We did ours as soon as our son was born. Modified it when our daughter was born. Great advice, YK. My parents are golden as well.