A Revocable Living Trust is a valuable estate planning tool that’s designed to allow you to avoid probate, but there are some things that you may be surprised to learn about this popular type of trust:

1. A Revocable Living Trust will not help you protect your assets from creditors. This is true during your lifetime and after your death. Because the trust is revocable (meaning you keep control and can take back the property at any time), the law says that your creditors can get at the trust assets while you’re alive. After you pass away, assuming all of your property is in your trust, then the property will be distributed through the trust and there will be no need for probate. If you’re concerned about creditors, this may not be such a good thing. This makes no sense..a trust can file a notice to creditors and get the same 4 month period. If it does nothing, it still has protection, but the claims period is 4 years instead of 4 months. The concept here is old law that’s been changed for at least 10 yearsThe probate process offers at least a little bit of protection from creditors. When you probate a Will, creditors have a deadline for filing their claims against the estate. If a creditor misses a deadline, they lose the right to collect on the debt forever.
2. A Revocable Living Trust does not do away with the need for a Will. This may seem strange, since the whole point of the trust is to avoid probate, but if you have a Revocable Living Trust, you need a special kind of Will called a Pour-Over Will. A Pour-Over Will serves as a catch-all for any property that may have been left out of the trust before your death, and places it in the trust when you die. This way, you make sure that all of your property ends up where you want it to.
3. A Revocable Living Trust will not help you avoid nursing home costs. Because the trust is revocable and you can end it at any time, the government counts all of the trust assets as your personal assets for purposes of determining whether you’re eligible for Medicaid.

A qualified estate planning attorney can help you determine whether a Revocable Living Trust is right for you, and can help you put together a comprehensive estate plan that will help you address all of the concerns you might have.

Armstrong, Fisch & Tutoli is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

Regular maintenance of your estate plan includes updating your Will, Trust and other legal documents that name beneficiaries. You should review your estate plan at least once a year and when major life events occur such as marriage, divorce or a new child.
Changes to these documents need to be executed the same way as the original version.

Do you have a 401K, Pension Plan, Life Insurance Policy, or other financial account? You must maintain and update the beneficiary forms for these assets regularly to reflect any beneficiary changes. You cannot rely on your Will or Trust to transfer these assets to your intended beneficiaries upon death.

Changing your Will or Living Trust is a more complicated process than changing a Pension Plan or Life Insurance Policy beneficiary, and how you change it will depend upon how the original document is executed. To change these documents, talk to your estate planning attorney.

Armstrong, Fisch & Tutoli is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

Probate is a legal process that distributes the estate to the rightful heirs after a person’s death. The primary probate process covers property in the home state of the deceased while an ancillary probate process covers property in other states.

And, because each state has their own set of laws, the ancillary probate process may distribute property much differently than you expected. Needless to say, dealing with two probate proceedings can be time-consuming and cumbersome. A good estate planning attorney can advise you best on how to avoid ancillary probate, but here is a simple guide to help you with the basics.

• Since the probate process covers real property, you can re-title the out-of-state property in the name of a Revocable Living Trust. The property held by the Trust is transferred directly to the beneficiaries named in the Trust upon your death.
• People who are married can title the property in joint names with their spouse. The spouse would take control of the property through rights of survivorship and avoid the probate process. Keep in mind however, that this is a temporary fix – ancillary probate will still be required when the other spouse dies or in the unfortunate event that the both spouses die at the same time. This is not the best option if the spouses wish to leave their property to different individuals (like their separate children), or worry about a new spouse ultimately getting the property.

• If you are not married or wish to give the property to someone other than your spouse after death, you can still title the property jointly and give survivorship rights to the other person. Your attorney will advise you of the tax and other consequences of transferring property during your lifetime.

Armstrong, Fisch & Tutoli is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

Actor Gary Coleman died last week at age 42 after falling at his home. The memorial service that was planned for this past weekend was cancelled and his body remains in a Salt Lake mortuary. His estranged parents and ex-wife all asserted rights to make medical decisions for him, including funeral arrangements.

According to reports, his former agent says Mr. Coleman who was a Utah resident at the time of his death has a CA will from the 1990′s and his former co-star says he has new paperwork. No one has mentioned a Health Care Directive which would have easily named the person he wanted in charge. So the wait begins for the Court proceedings to start…and if for some reason, the Court finds both wills invalid, his estate can pass under the laws of intestacy to his parents from whom he was estranged for over 20 years…

While you wait to hear the latest, call your own estate attorney and make sure your plan is up-to-date!

Armstrong, Fisch & Tutoli is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.