How a living trust works
You create the trust and usually serve as your own trustee. You move your home, accounts and other assets into it, and you keep using them exactly as before. You can change or cancel the trust at any time.
If you become unable to manage your affairs, the successor trustee you chose steps in without a court process. When you pass, your successor trustee distributes everything the way your trust says.
Why many families choose a trust
- No probate. Assets held in the trust pass without court supervision.
- Privacy. A will filed in probate becomes a public record. A trust does not.
- Incapacity planning. Your successor trustee can step in without a conservatorship.
- Control over timing. You can stage inheritances by age or milestone instead of handing everything over at 18.
A trust only works if it is funded
A trust that owns nothing protects nothing. Funding means retitling your real estate and accounts into the trust and coordinating your beneficiary designations. How we handle funding.
One original. At your final signing you sign one original trust, and you keep it. One original means no one can later dispute which version controls. We keep the unsigned version in your client portal so the plan can be re-signed if ever needed.