Revocable trusts or a common tool for use in estate planning. They offer planning opportunities not found with a traditional will yet maintain considerable flexibility for the person establishing the trust. Revocable trusts or simply an extension of the person who sets some up, typically referred to as the grantor, while they are alive and any trust assets can be accessed, altered, or sold just as if the asset was not part of the trust property. The simple will can suffice to transferestate assets after death but often there are other considerations that people would like to make Witchi simple will just won't cover. Some of these include additional privacy, reduced time or expense of estate administration, and asset management in the event of incapacity.
Estates are public record in the information that was filed during the probate process is available to anyone who would like to go to the register of wills office in Montgomery County where the decedent was a resident when they passed away and paying any applicable charges for duplication of the records. While celebrities and the very wealthy they simply wish to have some additional privacy to shield their family from public scrutiny after they die, most people don't need to worry about reporters or other random people seeking their estate information. That still doesn't mean that others are worried about privacy for other reasons however. Maybe the decedent has decided to leave their assets eight this proportional amount or to cut a certain individual out of the distribution of their estate entirely. This is perfectly acceptable, and quite common, but often can result in hurt feelings, interfamily disputes and sometimes a challenge to a will. For those seeking to avoid such disagreement, a revocable trust offers a simple alternative. The trust document can keep this information out of the public record and therefore avoid many of these potential issues.
A revocable trust can also offer some additional simplicity with respect to estate distribution and administration. The executory of an estate is required to find and accumulate the assets of the decedent so they can be consolidated and distributed to the named beneficiaries. People often have various assets in places that may not be obvious to executory and therefore may be difficult to locate or manage. By creating a trust and placing property into it, an individual can keep their assets together and make it much easier for an executory to locate manage. This can also save some time and cost associated with the distribution of the state because assets will already be in order and may only need to be liquidated or distributed in kind per the decedents instructions. Keeping assets in trust, and directing other assets to the trust at death, will also keep such assets out of probate. Probate in Pennsylvania is not particularly expensive or difficult, but other states such as Florida have much more challenging probate processes which may wish to be avoided to save additional time and cost for the state and the beneficiaries.
Finally, revocable living trusts also have an added benefit that is often overlooked during the estate planning process. Since the focus is usually on what will happen at death consideration may not be given to catastrophic events during the life of an individual. Sometimes a debilitating disease, a car accident, or other unexpected event will not kill a person believe them incapacitated and unable to manage their assets. By setting up a revocable living trust the grantor can appoint another individual they trust or a bank or other institution to manage their assets for them in the event they are no longer able. Estate plans should consider all sorts of possible scenarios while no one likes to think they will end up incapacitated at some point in their life, with people living longer lives there never and the increasing advancements in medical care this is a very real possibility that should be considered with any comprehensive estate plan.