Frequently Asked Questions

Everyone needs a will, whether you have a trust or not. Failure to prepare a will leaves decisions about your estate in the hands of judges or state officials and may also cause unnecessary family conflict.

With a will you can be clear about who gets your assets, who gets what and how much. You can also keep your assets out of the hands of people you don’t want to have them.

It is important to note, however that a will has to be filed with probate court and reviewed and approved before anyone named in the will can act on your behalf and then ultimately distribute the assets to your heirs. A will does not avoid court, which is actually a common myth that we run across.

A trust is a legal arrangement that can provide incredible flexibility for the ownership of certain assets, thereby enabling you and your heirs to achieve a number of significant personal goals that cannot be achieved otherwise. Plainly put, a revocable living trust is a written document that determines how your assets will be handled after you die.

A critical difference between a will anda trust is that a will has to be filed with the probate court, reviewed, and approved before anyone can act under it or receive assets from your estate. A trust is a completely private document. No one is entitled to see it, except those who are named in it, and the successor trustee named in your trust can act immediately, without having to go to court, file anything, or get permission first.

Unlike a will, a trust can also provide for management of your property and use of the assets for your benefit (and that of your family) if you should become incapacitated, thereby avoiding an appointment of a guardian for that purpose.