No other book covers living trusts better -- or more simply -- than this bestselling book.

Death may be inevitable, but probate doesn't have to be. By creating a living trust, your property will bypass lengthy and expensive probate proceedings and go directly to the people you've designated, quickly and easily.

Make Your Own Living Trust explains how to create a living trust, transfer property to the trust and amend or revoke the trust at any time. Specifically, it covers how to:

create various living trusts, including an AB trust (also known as a "marital trust" or "bypass trust")

transfer assets to your trust, including real estate, stocks and bonds, jewelry, art or a small business

name beneficiaries for all trust property

sign your document and make it legal

appoint someone to manage property left to minors or young adults

provide for trust property management if you become incapacitated

retain absolute control over trust property while you live

Make Your Own Living Trust includes all the forms you need -- as tear-outs and on CD-ROM -- to create your own trust, plus step-by-step instructions for filling them out.

Completely updated and revised, the 8th edition covers the "disclaimer trust," an excellent option if you're not sure whether you need an AB trust. This new edition help married couples take into account the changing estate tax exemptions when planning their AB trusts. It also provides new information on the rise of state estate taxes.

Good in all states except Louisiana. The forms from the CD-Rom, are available under the Appendix B of this EBOOK.
*The CD-ROM is not included with the digital version of this book.

 

An Overview of Living Trusts

Living trusts are an efficient and effective way to transfer property, at your death, to the relatives, friends, or charities you've chosen. Essentially, a living trust performs the same function as a will, with the important difference that property left by a will must go through the probate court process. In probate, a deceased person's will is proved valid in court, the person's debts are paid, and, usually after about a year, the remaining property is finally distributed to the beneficiaries. In the vast majority of instances, these probate court proceedings are an utter waste of time and money.

By contrast, property left by a living trust can go promptly and directly to your inheritors. They don't have to bother with a probate court proceeding. That means they won't have to spend any of your hard-earned money (at least, I presume it was hard-earned) to pay for court and lawyer fees.

You don't need to maintain separate tax records for your living trust. While you live, all transactions that are technically made by your living trust are simply reported on your personal income tax return. Indeed, while some paperwork is necessary to establish a probate-avoidance living trust and transfer property to it, there are no serious drawbacks or risks involved in creating or maintaining the trust.

These trusts are called "living" or sometimes "inter vivos" (Latin for "among the living") because they're created while you're alive. They're called "revocable" because you can revoke or change them at any time, for any reason, before you die.

While you live, you effectively keep ownership of all property that you've technically transferred to your living trust. You can do whatever you want to with any trust property, including selling it, spending it, or giving it away. A revocable living trust becomes operational at your death. At that point, it allows your trust property to be transferred, privately and outside of probate, to the people or organizations you have named as beneficiaries of the trust.

A. Living Trusts Explained

A trust can seem like a mysterious creature, dreamed up by lawyers and wrapped in legal jargon. Trusts were an invention of medieval England, used as a method to evade restrictions on ownership and inheritance of land. Don't let the word "trust" scare you. True, the word can have an impressive, slightly ominous sound. And trusts have traditionally been used by the very wealthy to preserve their riches from generation to generation. (Indeed, isn't one version of the American dream to be the beneficiary of your very own trust fund?) But happily, the types of living trusts this book covers aren't complicated or beyond the reach of ordinary folks. Here are the basics.

The Concept of a Trust A trust is an intangible legal entity ("legal fiction" might be a more accurate term). You can't see a trust, or touch it, but it does exist. The first step in creating a working trust is to prepare and sign a document called a Declaration of Trust.

Once you create and sign the Declaration of Trust, the trust exists. There must, however, be a flesh-and-blood person actually in charge of this property; that person is called the trustee. With traditional trusts, the trustee manages the property on the behalf of someone else, called the beneficiary. However, with a living trust, until you die, you are the trustee of the trust you create and also, in effect, the beneficiary. Only after your death do the trust beneficiaries you've named in the Declaration of Trust have any rights to your trust property.

 

No other book covers living trusts better -- or more simply -- than this bestselling book.

Introduction

1 Overview of Living Trusts.

2 Human Emotions and Living Trusts.

3 Common Questions About Living Trusts

4 What Type of Trust Do You Need?

5 Nolo’s Tax-Saving AB Trusts

6 Choosing What Property to Put in Your Living Trust

7 Trustees

8 Choosing Your Beneficiaries

9 Property Left to Minor Children or Young Adults

10 Preparing Your Living Trust Document

11 Transferring Property to Your Trust

12 Copying, Storing, and Registering Your Trust Document.

13 Living With Your Living Trust

14 After a Grantor Dies.

15 A Living Trust as Part of Your Estate Plan

16 Wills

17 If You Need Expert Help

Appendixes

A How to Use the Forms CD-ROM

B Forms
Form 1: Basic Living Trust for One Person
Form 2: Basic Shared Living Trust
Form 3: AB Living Trust
Form 4: AB Disclaimer Living Trust
Form 5: Witness Statement for a Florida Living Trust
Form 6: Assignment of Property to a Trust for One Person

Index
*The CD-ROM is not included with the digital version of this book.

"There are important differences between the trust-mill approach and that of such well-respected products as Nolo's Make Your Own Living Trust."

 

"In Nolo you can trust. ...Denis Clifford’s clearly written Make Your Own Living Trust should prove an enormous help to families who want to spare their heirs the expense and trouble of probate."

 

"If you think you can prepare your own living trust, an excellent book is Make Your Own Living Trust."

 

"You can set up your living trust yourself, but don't forget to transfer your home's title into your living trust... A good book to read first is Make Your Own Living Trust."

 

Denis Clifford, a graduate of Columbia Law School, where he was an editor of The Law Review, is a lawyer who specializes in estate planning. He is the author of many Nolo titles including Quick and Legal Will Book, Nolo's Simple Will Book and Make Your Own Living Trust and co-author of Plan Your Estate and A Legal Guide for Lesbian and Gay Couples. He has been interviewed by such major media as The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Money Magazine.

 

Make Your Own Living Trust by Denis Clifford
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