Including a trust in your estate plan can be a beneficial way to manage your assets. But you will want to choose carefully and ensure using a trust makes sense for your plans.
A revocable trust is the most common option. This type of trust allows you to make changes to it while you are still alive. It has a few advantages that make it a nice addition to your estate plan.
Add or remove assets
To create the trust, you must add assets to it. Once you add the assets to the trust, you transfer ownership to the trust. You no longer own the assets. But if you need to revert ownership back to yourself for some reason, you can do this.
Avoid probate
Generally, when you have a trust, there is no need for probate on those assets. The trust documentation already sets up the transfer of ownership and your wishes as to what happens with the assets after your death. There is no need for the court to become involved.
Have more privacy
Using a trust will allow you to have more privacy during the probate process. Everything that happens in probate becomes public, but since your trust will not have to go through probate, it stays private.
Get more control
Using a trust also allows you to have more control over what happens after you die. You can include conditions in a trust and instructions for disbursing the trust assets. You can make it so that you have some oversight over things even after you die.
A trust is worth considering. While it may cost more than a simple will, it could be worth it, depending on your situation.