My attorneys created both a will and RLT that have the same disposition of my assets.
Whether I hold assets inside or outside the trust, they will be allocated to irrevocable trusts upon my passing.
The main difference is the time involved for probate to transfer ownership outside the RLT to the irrevocable trusts.
If avoidance of probate was your only goal, maybe that's an issue, but as has been said many times here, probate may not be so costly nor time consuming in many states. We have majority of our assets in the RLTs so that the majority pass quickly to control of the successor trustee without waiting on courts. But complete avoidance of probate to handle residual small % of assets is NOT something we are trying to optimize away. I decided to balance convenience for my now vs convenience for my heirs later. Goal of
So I do have checking and some savings/brokerage outside the trust for my convenience now.
My home and most of my taxable investments were moved to RLT accounts.
IRAs have beneficiaries that are IRA trusts.
Cars are still outside the trust, and any misc personal belongings.
Physical items are of less concern as far as speed of transfer when your heirs are your children and they can get quick control.
As to checking, this is the only place we have joint accounts left. We each have our own RLT and split most assets into the 2 RLTs.
Many people add a child to their joint checking after a spouse passes for continuity of such acct to pay bills.
Personally I don't see much harm in having checking in an RLT our outside, pros and cons.
And there is nothing to stop you from having both if you see a need, which I do not.
I can easily transfer assets between my RLT brokerage and non-RLT checking electronically as needed.
On passing our checking will be owned by my spouse (or other joint), the RLT will become the spouse or successor trustee responsibility, so likely I would add the successor as joint to my checking when/if spouse passed, so the new trustee has similar setup to what I have now. If both of us passed, any assets outside the RLT will still be disposed of as we had intended, having the same estate tax, and other planning benefits. My heir/trustee/executor would likely hire an estate planning attorney to help them through the whole process, the probate involving a small % of assets is just one piece of the puzzle.
Whether I hold assets inside or outside the trust, they will be allocated to irrevocable trusts upon my passing.
The main difference is the time involved for probate to transfer ownership outside the RLT to the irrevocable trusts.
If avoidance of probate was your only goal, maybe that's an issue, but as has been said many times here, probate may not be so costly nor time consuming in many states. We have majority of our assets in the RLTs so that the majority pass quickly to control of the successor trustee without waiting on courts. But complete avoidance of probate to handle residual small % of assets is NOT something we are trying to optimize away. I decided to balance convenience for my now vs convenience for my heirs later. Goal of
So I do have checking and some savings/brokerage outside the trust for my convenience now.
My home and most of my taxable investments were moved to RLT accounts.
IRAs have beneficiaries that are IRA trusts.
Cars are still outside the trust, and any misc personal belongings.
Physical items are of less concern as far as speed of transfer when your heirs are your children and they can get quick control.
As to checking, this is the only place we have joint accounts left. We each have our own RLT and split most assets into the 2 RLTs.
Many people add a child to their joint checking after a spouse passes for continuity of such acct to pay bills.
Personally I don't see much harm in having checking in an RLT our outside, pros and cons.
And there is nothing to stop you from having both if you see a need, which I do not.
I can easily transfer assets between my RLT brokerage and non-RLT checking electronically as needed.
On passing our checking will be owned by my spouse (or other joint), the RLT will become the spouse or successor trustee responsibility, so likely I would add the successor as joint to my checking when/if spouse passed, so the new trustee has similar setup to what I have now. If both of us passed, any assets outside the RLT will still be disposed of as we had intended, having the same estate tax, and other planning benefits. My heir/trustee/executor would likely hire an estate planning attorney to help them through the whole process, the probate involving a small % of assets is just one piece of the puzzle.
Statistics: Posted by beyou — Wed Nov 06, 2024 12:29 am — Replies 22 — Views 904
