designed by lawyers to make you buy useless trust packages? I live in Virginia. I have one husband and one adult child. I'm thinking of doing my own will. Is probate really that big a deal? Why do so many people have trusts? My own father was bamboozled into getting a trust that we had to redo at the end of his life. The lawyer who did it was no longer practicing. It was one of those deals where they lure people in with a steak dinner and then sell them a trust. My father was a retired Navy chief originally from the Philippines, so I suspect having a trust made him feel like he'd made it.
Trusts can protect assets from a new wife or husband from getting their hands on it. Even if inherited funds are kept separate outside of a trust, any increase in value becomes joint assets. In a trust all the funds remain with the beneficiaries of the trust.
Can the TOD list more than 1 person? We have 3 sons, but the TOD could only transfer to 1 of them.
My Dad (who was an attorney) hated paying attorneys and paying taxes so he put everything in a trust including his house and kept his bank accounts below the probate threshold. I have heard depending on your state, as much as 10% of estate value spent on probate and it can take a very long time.
Just to clarify--it's possible to not commingle inherited funds. Maybe not in your nieces' case because they're the type to have rocky lives and might not be with-it enough to set up and properly maintain an account just for the inherited funds. But it's definitely possible to keep an inheritance out of the spouse's hands.[/QUOTE]Both are now divorcing. Their ex husbands are not entitled to any funds under trust. If they inherited it outright, the funds would have been comingled and they would be entitled to half.
I think that's something people misunderstand about probate.On the other hand if the kids can work things out among themselves who would ever know.
I think that's something people misunderstand about probate.
The purpose of probate is actually outward looking--notifying creditors that someone has died and giving them a time certain by which they have to present their claims, or maintaining a chain of title for real property. And appointing someone to represent the estate in these matters.
As far as how the property gets divided up, which is what most people think probate is all about, the court doesn't really care. Notice that all that gets filed in court in a routine probate is the will, and then an inventory of the estate. There's not a listing of who gets what.
And the only time who gets what becomes an issue is if someone with standing complains, e.g. a beneficiary complains that the executor violated his fiduciary duty to the beneficiary by the way the executor distributed property. But absent a complaint, the court doesn't care which kid gets the piano and which kid gets the oil painting.
I'd prefer that we kill all the high school English teachers instead.Can you check out some DIY books? I feel you. I’m with Shakespeare: “First let’s kill all the lawyers.”
Who do you think writes the DIY books?Can you check out some DIY books? I feel you. I’m with Shakespeare: “First let’s kill all the lawyers.”
"protect assets" from whom or what?