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A living trust is an agreement or legal arrangement where one person (The Trustee) holds title to property for another person (The Beneficiary.)

The primary purpose of a living trust arrangement is to help you avoid probate, reduce Estate Taxes or set up long-term property management. It is used to reduce taxes. Each spouse leaves property in trust to the other for life and then to the children or other beneficiaries. This financial strategy uses the living trust to save up to hundreds of thousands of dollars in estate taxes. Obviously, the more your estate is worth the more tax benefits your family can legally save.

Holding property in a living trust is really simpler and better than a will because it can be quickly distributed to the Beneficiaries. So, by the time your creditors find out about your death, all of your worldly goods have already been distributed. A typical will can take months to go through probate before your inheritors get anything and can cost thousands of dollars in lawyer and court fees.

By using a living trust to avoid probate The Successor Trustee, a person you appoint to handle the trust after your death. simply transfers the ownership to the Beneficiaries you name in your trust. There are no lawyer fees or court costs to pay and in most cases the entire process only takes a few weeks. And the process is completely private.

By now you may be saying I never knew that. But everyone understands that time is money. Now you have a choice called a Living Trust that can secure your assets for your family and loved ones after you are gone.

The first step is to talk to a good tax accountant about setting up a Living Trust. We all face the inevitable and choose not to dwell on it. No one likes to think about dying. However, you owe it to your family secure their future before you die to avoid probate court, retain privacy so creditors are never notified and ultimately to reduce taxes for those left behind.