Services

 

Estate Planning and The Revocable Living Trust

Control and Protect your Assets for your Children or Heirs
With a Revocable Living Trust, you retain control of your assets.  You deal with your assets the same as you do currently.  You may easily take assets out of your Trust, or even terminate your Trust.  You are the Settler, Trust and Beneficiary.  If incompetent, the other spouse continues on as the Trustee.   Your Successor Trustee, whom you name in the beginning, takes over for you when both die or become incompetent.  In that way the courts & Lawyers are not involved in transferring your assets to your children or heirs nor collect 5% - 10% fees.


Avoiding Probate
If your assets add up to more than $50,000 then your heirs will probably go through probate, as required by Arizona statutes. Probate is the court process that changes legal ownership of your assets to your heirs at your death. Probate is required whether you have a will or not. Probate is required for people, not Trusts.

The Probate process is time consuming and costly. It is also very public. Probate can take anywhere from 8 months to 3 years or more. Average Probate fees range from 3% to 10% of the gross value of all your assets. The exact cost depends on the probate attorney. Since the Revocable Living Trust is a separate entity, it holds title to your assets. Therefore, when you die, the Trustee simply distributes the assets to the people you name in your Trust, free of Probate.

New Trust Laws
The Arizona Trust Code was adopted on January 1, 2009. All Trusts, existing and new should be changed to meet these new laws. This is the biggest change in Trust Law in the history of Arizona. You may contact Gibraltar Trusts to determine if your Trust meets the new Laws.
 

Avoiding Conservators and Guardians
Conservators and Guardians are people whom the court appoints to protect you and your property. With a Revocable Living Trust, you designate who you want to protect you and your property. The Revocable Living Trust details what powers and duties they will have. You decide, not the government.
 

Reduce or Eliminate Estate Taxes
The Beginning marginal tax bracket for federal estate taxes starts at 18% and goes up to 55%. This means that our old Uncle Sam could take about half of each additional dollar growth in you estate. Under current federal estate tax law, an individual or a couple can pass to our heirs up to $2,000,000 (as of Jan 2006) through the Unified Tax Credit, without paying any federal estate tax. But for married couples with an estate worth between $2,000,000 and $4,000,000, a Revocable Living Trust can eliminate estate taxes.  For Estates over $4,000,000, other estate planning tools and techniques are required in order to eliminate or at least reduce federal estate taxes.

Starting in 2011, the Federal estate tax is 55% of the excess over $1 million left to heirs and children in an estate.

Privacy
Your Revocable Living Trust is a private document. Who gets what and when is your business and not the public's. Unfortunately, with a will, the transfer of assets to your heirs is public information.

Asset Protection
The Revocable Living Trust does not, in itself, give immediate asset protection to the Settlors. The law in this area of asset proetction is delicate and changes from time to time, so make sure your advisor understands the issues in this area of planning.

Other Estate Planning Ideas
There are many other types of estate planning tools and techniques. We would be happy to discuss these with you.

The Estate Planning Portfolio

With our Estate Planning Portfolio, you will receive

• Trust Overview
• Revocable Living Trust
• Schedule of Trust Assets
• Certificate of Trust
• Community Property Agreement (if applicable)
• Pour-Over Wills
• Living Wills
• Durable General Powers of Attorney
• Medical Powers of Attorney
• Assignment of personal property
• Deed for transfer of house
• Funding letters
• Funding Instructions
• Document Location List
• Important Advisors List
• Family Letter
• Instructions on what to do at death