Comments on: How to set up a revocable living trust (with sample trust document)

By: Newt Pearson

Newt Pearson — Fri, 07 Jul 2023 16:08:46 +0000

Thank you for your time and knowledge .
Elderly couple owns primary and lake home with about 40/60 time spent receptively .
Goal is to minimize or eliminate capital gains if living or for heirs upon death of both spouses ….even if 1 or both homes need to be sold . There is no emotional attachment and no financial needs from proceeds . However , do desire liquidation for simplifying asset distribution to heirs . Open to option of rolling/selling these 2 homes ASAP and purchasing a 3rd that as I understand would start a new cost basis .

By: Cris Melser

Cris Melser — Fri, 10 Jun 2022 00:03:01 +0000

My husband has passed so now I am the beneficiary and my 2 children are the trustors. How do they go about getting a loan on the property if they need to make improvements? If they set up trusts, does our family trust role into their separate trusts?

By: Alex R

Alex R — Tue, 11 Jan 2022 03:18:35 +0000

This is very helpful, thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge.

I already have a Revocable Family Trust that I set up years ago since my wife and I were worried about our kids in the event that something happened to us.

Now we have relatives that want to give monetary gifts to the kids. Instead of these going directly to the kids I would like to set up a trust fund for each child so that monetary gifts can go into the trust and be managed and distributed in a “spendthrift” way.

I wanted to confirm that I can go ahead and set up a support trust for each child, i.e. it is okay to have multiple trusts.

Using the sample trust you provided as a baseline, I can change the name to “Support Trust for ….”. I noticed section 18 of the sample trust has ‘spendthrift’ related wording which can be further customized as needed.

Once this is set up I’m assuming relatives can then write checks in the name of the Trust where is can be managed by the Trustee (i.e. me).

Is all of this correct? Any comments or suggestions?

Thanks!

By: Andrew C.

Andrew C. — Sun, 21 Mar 2021 23:36:13 +0000

In reply to ELLEN HEACOCK. You don't need court approval to create a trust. You just need to be able to prove validity of the trust if someone ever challenges it in court.

By: ELLEN HEACOCK

ELLEN HEACOCK — Sun, 21 Mar 2021 09:06:54 +0000

My husband and I have legal guardianship of our four year old grandson the child has approximately $17,000 in CDs that we have purchased through the years,
We have received a court order that we can establish a revocable trust so my question would be…..
the grantor would be my husband the co-trustees would be my husband and our two adult sons and the beneficiary would be the four year old grandson?
Does the court need to approve we need the specific trust or can we just establish the trust and transfer the funds to be managed by the trust?
We have a financial advisor helping us invest the funds.
We had an attorney that was supposed to draft the trust but has not done anything in over 6 months and would like to just draft the trust on our own

By: Eric

Eric — Tue, 16 Feb 2021 00:53:58 +0000

Is it possible to do more in a RLT than just assign benefits and percentages? Can I set up for instance an annuity to provide a stream of income from the sale of a house or life insurance proceeds? Basically a spendthrift setup. Looking for more of a narrative type distribution rather than a straight percentage based distribution.

By: Phil

Phil — Sat, 08 Feb 2020 00:00:20 +0000

Andrew–

Another quick question for a bar-certified JD such as yourself if you don’t mind.

How do lawyers decide which language is appropriate for a client? I searched lawinsider.com and literally found dozens of variations of spendthrift clauses, for example. I assume that a majority of them (99%) are probably adequate and that state to state variations in trust law wouldn’t necessarily drive the choice of language such that very particular language is required? Or am I mistaken? As an engineer, the amount of variation in language makes the practice of law seem so imprecise and open to challenge. The good thing is this site does identify the most common examples of various parts of legal documents.

The number of variations is so staggering that I’m not even sure a given estate planning lawyer isn’t guessing at the correct one to use for a client that is most advantageous in the client’s state.

Appreciate your thoughts on this.

Phil

By: Andrew C.

Andrew C. — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 01:55:49 +0000

In reply to Phil. Glad it was helpful Phil!

By: Andrew C.

Andrew C. — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 01:54:06 +0000

In reply to Phil.

Chain of title – right, it’s not that it can definitively be traced, but someone digging around will mostly likely infer the prior named individual is behind the trust entity next in line in the chain of title. Once someone knows the name of a trust, it’s a lot easier to pry it open through legal proceedings. It’s better that the name isn’t known in the first place.

By: Phil

Phil — Sun, 02 Feb 2020 13:28:01 +0000

Just saw your full response on ‘chain of title’… it got cut off in the email.

Understand now. Will rethink fictitious names now. The only hangup I ever heard with RLTs from a lawyer, was that a bank was asking for the trust grantor’s signature from the successor trustee after the original trustee died. They wouldn’t release funds until the guy named in the trust signed the trust over to the new trustee. As for creditors, once irrevocable after death and with a spendthrift clause, it doesn’t sound like anyone (beneficiary or creditor) can touch the trust assets anyway. I told my wife, if I die, then keep everything in the trust and out of her name for protection reasons.

Thanks again….best one stop shopping for RLT info I’ve run into to date. And it doesn’t hurt that you’re Bar certified in several states too.