Affordable Trust Settlement Guidance
For over 20 years Affordable Living Trusts has earned a reputation for providing high quality Living Trusts at reasonable prices. What some may not be aware of is that we also offer affordable Trust Settlement Guidance that is generally priced far below that of trust settlement services offered elsewhere.

You do have a choice
It is an unfortunate, common and often costly misperception that you must return to the same law office that drafted the trust and blindly pay what often amounts to very high charges to settle the trust. You are in fact free to seek help anywhere and by doing a little comparison shopping you can often save many thousands of dollars.

Beware That Some Law Offices are Charging Over $25,000!
Though trust settlement charges come in many shapes and sizes we know of numerous instances of $25,000.00 plus charges involving extended settlement times (over a year) for administering even a simple, straightforward, uncontested, modestly valued trust estates. To be fair, not everyone is charging that much but clients often tell us of quotes ranging anywhere from $5,000 to $25,000.  What’s troubling is that far too many are coming in at the higher ranges (and even above). By comparison our average charge has been around $800. This should at least give anyone pause to do some investigation as to your choices.

Do you want a guidance-based approach or a lengthy, probate-like approach?
You should begin any comparison by first understanding that, necessary or not, many law offices take very lawyer-intense, probate-like approaches towards trust settlement that involve time consuming, full, formal representation from start to finish. Such approaches tend to be very bureaucratic, take a long time to settle, and of course usually end up being very expensive. To many, this seems almost the antithesis of what a trust is supposed to be about and we tend to agree.

Is such an approach required? NO!
We’ve guided thousands of trustees to successful trust settlement.
In our experience, with some guidance and documentation, most trustees have little problem understanding the issues and attending to most matters.  So instead of a heavy-handed approach we try to stay true to what we believe was the original intent behind trusts by embracing a philosophy of keeping the family and their chosen representative as the proper conduit for handling routine matters, rather than charging high attorney fees for performing the very tasks most trustees are fully capable of handling themselves. Not only has this approach allowed us to guide thousands of trustees and families towards very successfully settling their trusts, we also regularly receive comments about how easily things worked out.

It is not just an alternative approach to trust settlement, it is a logical one.
In settling a trust our philosophy is that it makes the most sense to first ask questions; understand and evaluate matters; and see what is involved before plunging headlong into costly, probate-like attorney representation, for which most ultimately find little need. In fact, after helping thousands of trustees, only a relative few (due to unusual circumstances) have ended up needing greater lawyer involvement. Yet even in that small minority of cases