Revocable Living Trust: Avoiding Probate the Easy Way
The revocable living trust is a great way to avoid probate. Probate involves unnecessary costs, delays for distributions, and potentially the loss of otherwise private information. Generally speaking, the revocable trust escapes probate and it works so well that some might think it must be voodoo or black magic.
Sadly, some people believe that "trusts" are for the rich, you know something only the Rockefeller's and Carnegie's of this world need.
However, in California a probate is triggered at a person's death when they own a combined total of qualifying real and personal property worth over $100,000. Sure property values in the Desert have been headed lower in recent times, but, there are a lot of homes worth over $100,000 that are not owned by the Rockefeller or Carnegie types.
I would say many home owners in the Desert have real property that is worth over $100,000, and that's before adding personal property to the overall estate value. So probate avoidance can benefit many homeowners (clearly the average owners of real property in the Desert)--and thus a revocable living trust is a great option for homeowners.
But some might also think that a revocable living trust is something that will complicate their lives too much, and so it is easier to be an ostrich with their head in the ground. Of course an ostrich with its head in the ground is pretty exposed elsewhere.
In general terms, a trust is merely a legal device to hold your assets so they can be transferred without the need for a probate upon your death. There is no magic involved, but it is advisable to have a competent attorney draft the provisions of a trust to fit your own needs.
But once your trust is created, your life will not cease to exist as you know it!
