In recent years, revocable trusts have become a preferred method in estate planning to a regular one-time Will or irrevocable trust. Although revocable trusts in North Carolina are similar to a Will in that they both make a plan for how your estate is handled in the event of your death, the revocable trust has additional benefits.
If the grantor is incapacitated, a revocable trust can be changed or canceled, which provides flexibility in the case a change is warranted - this is a huge advantage over the more traditional irrevocable trusts or Wills.
If you need help with estate planning and setting up a revocable trust, the team at David E Anderson PLLC is here and ready to help.
What Is a Revocable Trust?
A revocable trust is a trust containing assets to be transferred to the beneficiaries upon the grantor's death. In the meantime, the grantor or originator of the trust retains control, including receiving all interest from the trust.
Unlike some trusts granted from a will, a revocable trust can be changed, or even canceled. There's a trustee responsible for dispensing the assets of a trust after the death of the owner.
Nothing in an irrevocable trust can ever be moved for any reason, however the revocable kind has more flexibility.
What Are the Advantages to a Revocable Trust for Estate Planning?
For one thing, revocable trusts make it so that beneficiaries can obtain the assets in a revocable trust much more quickly since the beneficiaries generally don't have to go through probate to make the transfer. This is important because it allows your loved ones to avoid the time, expense, and effort related to transferring assets after your death.
It also allows you to avoid multiple probates if you happen to have real property in more locations than just North Carolina. Trying to plan for probates in multiple states, each with different rules and procedures can be a real pain, after all.
This is more efficient in general, and it also makes it easier for your estate to be managed effectively by your trustee.
Structural Advantages
In terms of structure, you can put all of your assets into one overarching trust. With this structure, it’s one plan, with one instructional list for your beneficiaries and trustees to follow.
This approach also makes it so that it's easier to make sure that your assets are distributed as fairly as possible among those that you designate as beneficiaries.
Our experienced estate planning team can look at your specific situation and see if this may be the right fit for you.
Flexibility Advantages
Having extra flexibility is always desirable when it comes to estate planning. A revocable trust gives you a number of choices as far as flexibility. For example, you can designate that assets will stay in a trust until your beneficiaries are old enough to receive the assets, long after your death.
You can make it so that assets are shielded from creditors for your beneficiaries. In fact, you can protect assets from many things that might make it so that they don't actually end up in the hands of your beneficiaries. This includes trustees or someone else spending inappropriately, spouses trying to get access, the fallout from divorce, or a spike in taxes in the future.
You can even protect the assets of minors from being taken as a result of a lawsuit.
Procedural Advantages
If you use a revocable trust, you may avoid the necessity of Court intervention if you become incapacitated, or after you die. This is much more of an issue when it comes to irrevocable trusts. The revocable type allows you to assert more control over what happens in the future.
There is also the benefit of avoiding probate, keeping your family from having to endure the probate process. This will make it so that your family doesn't have to worry as much over what happens to the assets since the transaction will go much more smoothly when Court approval is not required.
Protection Advantages
In fact, it even goes further than normal asset protection. For example, it's significantly more difficult to contest and try to overturn a revocable trust than it is with a Will. This way you don't have to stress about trying to counter anyone who might want to contest your wishes ahead of time.
On top of all of this, a revocable trust helps protect your assets in the case of future marriage. Revocable trusts allow you to provide for your spouse after your passing, while also leaving a legacy for your family, not his or his next wife’s family.
Contact Our North Carolina Revocable Trust Attorneys
In general, a revocable living trust gives you a huge amount of control over your assets during your life while still allowing you to make sure that they are distributed in the manner you want after you pass. You can even plan for what should happen if you become incapacitated while still living. There are few options that will give you this kind of peace of mind that you won't make some mistake that you can't ever correct, or that things won't go the way you plan.
Estate planning can be a difficult task to accomplish given the sheer number of variables to consider. That's why it's important to get the right team on your side to guide you - we’re here and ready to help. Contact us today for your estate planning consultation at 910-509-7287.