Why a Living Trust?

Introduction

A Forewarning

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17

Why a Living Trusts : Overview of Trusts vs. Wills

Understanding The Nature of The Beast
It is well known that our judicial system operates at a relative snail’s pace. Anyone who has ever been involved with lawyers and the courts can tell you that. The court system is highly procedural, paperwork- laden, and intensely bureaucratic, requiring a strict procedure and process for everything. By law, every process must be followed and allowed to run out its string (due process) -- no matter how long it takes, no matter the frustrations, no matter the delays, no matter how much it costs, no matter how much it defies seeming logic or common sense to the layperson.

Filings, preliminary hearings, notices, responses, subpoenas, depositions, interrogatories, second hearings, waiting periods, preliminary court approvals, delays, more filings, more hearings, more responses, more court approvals, more delays, discovery, preliminary judgments, final judgments, final approvals etc. -- are all just overview samples of the “grinding” processes.

Hearing dates take months to schedule out on a court calendar -- and numerous hearings and appearances tend to characterize every case. The multiplicative effect of this alone makes most any case a gruelingly long process from open to close.

Court cases greatly expose your privacy as well. All hearings are open to the public and all information is a matter of public record. Every paper, every filing, every figure, every involved asset, every person’s name, address, phone number -- every last detail is all public record for anyone and everyone to view at any time. Take a trip down to any court house and you can ask to see the complete file on any case. There are no qualifications or restrictions. It doesn’t matter who you are – a relative, a reporter, a con man – it’s all the same. It’s yours for the asking. The amount of highly personal information accessible at will, by anyone, is staggering.

That is our court system. So the question is this: Why would anyone choose to subject themselves to such a slow, onerous, public process with no privacy if they didn’t have to?

This begs another question: Given the public’s frustration and distaste for what they have to pay attorneys why would anyone voluntarily sign up for high legal fees if they didn’t have to? Is there anyone who hasn’t winced at having to write a $10,000, $25,000, $50,000, $100,000 retainer check to a lawyer? Is there anyone who likes paying high attorney fees period – much less uselessly?

These are the core issues and choices when evaluating a Living Trust vs. a Will. It is fundamentally a choice as to what you want to sign your family up for. Do you want to uselessly force them to endure an agonizingly slow, highly bureaucratic public process characterized by steep legal fees, a complete loss of control and sacrifice of privacy – or – do you want a much easier, shorter, straightforward process that keeps the family in control, preserves privacy, and is characterized by far lower legal fees? If you want the former you choose a Will to pass your estate (which signs you up for probate). If you want the latter then you will choose a Living Trust to pass your estate. It is as simple as that.

A Will automatically signs you up for the probate system and high-handed lawyer and government / court involvement. A Living Trust says we’ll keep it a private affair in the family and call you if we need you. That’s pretty much what it boils down to.

Become Aware That You Have A Choice
Let it sink in: You do have a choice. In fact, the choice has always been there -- it’s the awareness that hasn’t been. Simply put, the ever-increasing use of Living Trusts over the past few decades can be directly attributed to folks slowly waking up to the fact that they do have a choice. The steady rising prominence of Living Trusts is not due to some trick, snake oil sale, or something that is too good to be true. There is no hidden or nefarious agenda behind Living Trusts. It is not a passing fad but rather it is a growing trend for the very good reason that it is a far easier, much less expensive way to pass your estate. This isn’t “ivory tower theory”. As an attorney with 20 years experience, observing real people and real situations every day, the overwhelming and obvious case for a Living Trust demonstrates itself over and over each of those days.

Align Your Choice With Your Own Values & Wishes
As a reference point consider this: Who of us while alive would voluntarily choose to subject ourselves to lawyers, lawsuits, courts, and high legal fees if there was a much easier, faster, simple legal path in front of us that produced even better results? Honestly, would any of us ever gladly and willingly write large checks to lawyers or involve them in our life when we really didn’t have to? You wouldn’t make that kind of choice while you are alive so why would you ever choose and force such a path on anyone at some future date – much less your family or loved ones?

The most likely answer to that question is you wouldn’t – at least not consciously or knowingly. It is one of the great hoodwinks that this decision is removed in time from its actual consequence. It is this removal in time that obscures and conceals the true impact and causes people to unknowingly and unconsciously do that which they would never otherwise choose to do if they were suffering the consequences in real time. I have always maintained virtually no one would choose the probate process over a Living Trust if the choice was given at death. See this issue in this light and follow your own common sense. Such will lead you to the right decisions.

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