The term “living trust will” is not really a legal term. However, many people use the term when they first investigate a living trust. People are used to having a will distribute assets after the death of the person making the will. The confusion probably arises, because people know that the trust will distribute the property after a death. In a sense, a living trust is a substitute for the standard will. “A living trust and a will are two separate elements. Therefore, when using the term” living trust will, “as an attorney, I am not sure what it is There is a legal document called a living trust and a different legal document called a will. Actually, there should always be a will that accompanies a living trust. It’s called a “discharged will.”
A discharged will serves as a fail-safe mechanism for living trusts. Trusts are often called “revocable living trusts” or “revocable living trusts” because they are always revocable. That means the creator of the trust can revoke the trust and bring everything back to the status quo anytime they want. ”People use trusts to avoid probate and get more value for their heirs without paying any estate taxes.
A revocable trust only prevents probate if it is properly managed by the person who establishes it. Most people who obtain a living trust do not avoid probate. There is a legitimate argument in the legal community against this, because many of them do not provide the inheritance protection that was “sold” to the family. This is not a trust issue. It is a problem with lawyers and how they educate their clients. Most of them do not give the client enough education and do not know how to “use” their trust, so they fail to avoid legalization.
When the trust does not protect the family against inheritance, the assets of the deceased must be legalized. That means the family has to go through the probate process. If the deceased had a will, the court will use the will to guide the probate process. If there is no will, the court will treat the case as an “intestate” proceeding. Intestate means there is no will.
When you obtain a revocable living trust, you must also obtain a discharged will. If for any reason the assets need to be probated, the courts can use the will to guide the probate process. Hopefully, the landfill will never be used, because the trust will prevent probate of all of the decedent’s assets.
Because wills don’t make a distribution of property, like standard wills do. Once the property is legalized, a spill will direct the court to “transfer” all of the property to the revocable trust, so that it can be distributed according to the terms of the trust.
