DAL Law Firm: Is a Revocable Living Trust right for you?

A revocable living trust is a type of estate plan that allows you to transfer ownership of your assets into your trust during your lifetime and manage them for your own benefit. Let’s go over the general steps for creating a revocable living trust:

  1. Determine if a revocable living trust is right for you: A revocable living trust may be appropriate if you have significant assets, own real estate in multiple states, want to avoid probate, or wish for your estate to be managed privately and not be included in public records as it would with probate. Watch Darcel’s video about why our clients choose a revocable living trust:

  1. Choose a Successor Trustee: A trustee is the person or entity responsible for managing the trust assets. During your lifetime, you will be the trustee. But you will also name someone else, such as a family member, friend, or professional trustee, to act as your successor trustee after you have passed.
  1. Drafting the revocable living trust and related documents: Our office will prepare not only your revocable living trust, but also the supplemental documents which accompany it, which includes your Pourover will, power of attorneys, directives, HIPAA releases, and a number of other documents for you to have a comprehensive estate plan. 
  1. Transfer assets into the trust: To fund the trust, you must transfer ownership of the assets to the trust. This may include bank accounts, real estate, stocks, and other assets. We will help you with this when we create your estate plan. Watch Darcel’s video about funding your trust here:

  1. Sign and notarize the trust document: We will sign your revocable living trust and related documents at our office with our notary and witnesses. 
  1. Keep your trust documents and other important papers in a safe place: After signing your revocable living trust, we will prepare an estate planning binder for you. The revocable living trust and other important papers related to the trust should be kept in a safe place, such as a safe deposit box.
  1. Update the trust as needed: You can update the trust document at any time during your lifetime by drafting and signing a new document, or by creating an amendment. Your revocable living trust is fully revocable, and you can change it at any time. We recommend reviewing your estate plan every 5-10 years, or when there is a major life event (i.e. marriage, divorce, birth, death, etc).

It’s important to note that creating a revocable living trust can be complex, and it’s often advisable to consult with an attorney who specializes in estate planning to ensure that the trust is created properly and meets your specific needs. If you want to create a revocable living trust, contact our office for assistance. You can visit us online at: www.dallawfirm.com or you can call/text us at (206) 408-8158.

Contact us:

19803 1st Avenue S.
Suite 200
Normandy Park, WA 98148

T (206) 408-8158
F (206) 374-2810

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