Living Trust Right for Me?

MA estate planning attorneys frequently provide for a Living Trust as the heart of a person's estate planning. Estate planning would also typically is also known as a Revocable Trust.

​It can give you several advantages over just having a Will.

The advantages includes these:

• Tax benefits
• Non-tax benefits

Tax benefits

Generally the tax benefits are available to married couples, or those with a long standing relationship. The Living Trust would include providing a subtrust for the benefit of the surviving spouse or partner. 

This subtrust could provide income and principal to the survivor but with a special benefit. The subtrust's assets would not be included as part of the taxable estate of the survivor. 

This non-inclusion on the second would lower the taxable estate of the survivor. So that the estate tax would be lower, as it is based on the taxable estate of the survivor's taxable estate. 

In short, the survivor gets the benefit of the subtrust but the assets are NOT in the estate of the survivor.

Benefits Other than Tax

The Living Trust gives benefits apart from the above tax approach. It can accomplish these goals:

Keep money out of the hands of underage or beneficiaries with issues (addiction, etc.) 
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• This is accomplished by the trustee holding the money for the particular beneficiary, after your death, and then giving it to them over time. So to slow down the access to money until more thought can be put into its use. The trustee is the person or persons whom is put in charge of the money until it is fully distributed sometime in the future.​

Avoids the probate of a will

• This is another benefit of  your living trust owning your assets at your passing.
• But some assets, such as an IRA, are not owned by your living trust.  Due to these types of assets having a Designation of Beneficiary, however, these assets do not need to be probated at your death.