THERE ARE THREE MAIN REASONS TO USE A REVOCABLE TRUST FOR YOUR ESTATE PLANNING:
1. You continue to be the owner, manager, and decision maker for your assets.
2. A Trust along with a Durable Power of Attorney and Health Care Surrogate provide the necessary elements to avoid winding up in Guardianship proceedings if you become physically and/or mentally incapable of managing your own assets and caring for yourself.
3. After you die, your assets will be administered without the need for protracted and expensive probate proceedings.

HERE ARE FOUR THINGS TO PREPARE FOR A VISIT TO AN ATTORNEY:

1. Make a list of all your assets. Be sure your list includes everything you own.
Examples: Bank accounts, investment accounts, retirement accounts such as IRAs, 401Ks, all property owned in part or in full, boats, automobiles, life insurance policies, businesses, patents, debts owed to you.
2. Choose a successor trustee to manage your property if you become unable to do so due to illness or mental incapacity. Choose someone you trust 100%.
3. Choose beneficiaries who will inherit your property after you die.
4. Choose a guardian for your minor child(ren) and/or for your pet(s)
➢ You will be the Settlor, the Trustee, and the Beneficiary of your Trust.
➢ You are the Beneficiary for as long as you live. After you die, the Beneficiary(s) is/are whomever you name in the Trust document.
➢ Typically, the Revocable Trust becomes Irrevocable upon your death and the Successor Trustee Distributes the Trust property according to the terms that you detailed in the Trust document.
➢ A Trust gives you the ability to make provisions for beneficiaries whom you do not wish to give a large lump sum to. You can direct that they receive smaller amounts over time. The Co-Trustee(s) and/or Successor Trustee(s) would administer the Trust property according to the directions that you have given them in the Trust document.

Diana Mangsen focuses her practice as an elder law attorney in Clearwater, Palm Harbor, Largo, Dunedin and the Tampa Bay area.

For more information, visit our website at
https://www.mangsenlaw.com/
or call (727) 888-6282.