Unfortunately, all too often, the common mistake we see in estate planning is the failure to fund a living trust. Funding is the step in transferring ownership of assets into the living trust. It’s not enough to simply have a living trust, if you fail to fund a living trust you risk losing those assets.
In this Estate Planning Minute, Wes Coulson, Illinois Elder Law attorney, discusses another common estate planning mistake and the importance of transferring ownership of assets into a living trust.
Common Estate Planning Mistake #12: Failing to fund a Living Trust
Transcript:
Hi, I’m Wes Coulson and this is your Estate Planning Minute. This is another in our series on Common Estate Planning Mistakes and one that we see, unfortunately all too often, is the failure to fund a living trust.
Now, what do I mean by funding? What I mean by that is transferring ownership of assets into the living trust. Here’s why it’s so important that you be comprehensive in doing that.
Think of the living trust as a safe that’s going to avoid probate for you. Let’s say that you have a home safe and you put a few things in there, but you leave everything else out. You leave your money laying out, you leave jewelry in drawers, important papers laying out, and somebody breaks in to your house and steals everything that wasn’t in your safe. Well, that’s not a problem with the safe, it’s a problem with not having things in the safe that needed to be in the safe.
And the same here with the living trust. It’s not enough to have a living trust, what avoids probate is having the living trust own your assets when you die. Thanks.
For more about Living Trusts and Estate Planning, visit these articles:
Dent-Coulson Elder Law is dedicated to providing families in the St. Louis area with their Elder Law needs. Our practice areas include Asset Preservation Planning, Veterans Benefits, Medicaid Eligibility, Alzheimer’s Planning, Special Needs Planning, Estate Planning and more. We understand the financial challenges you may face as you and your loved ones grow older. At Dent-Coulson Elder Law, our clients’ well-being is our number one priority. For immediate help, call (877)995-6876 or Contact Us and we will get in touch as soon as possible.
