Can a Trust Document Be a Verbal One?

State laws can vary from one location to another as to whether or not handwritten wills or other forms of wills could be legally accepted. When it comes to the creation of a trust for the purposes of your estate planning goals, however, it’s very important to put the trust into writing. You’ll enhance your entire estate planning by making sure that each of your desires is documented in writing whether it’s a power of attorney, will, or even personal property memorandum.

Where a trust involves the execution of a will or a grant of a real estate, the trust has to appear in writing in order for courts to view it as legally valid. For many people this distinction appears relatively obvious. However, many people fail to comply with this basic requirement thinking that they have simply created a trust due to oral arrangements made with close friends or family members.

This means that these promises will not hold up in court and that a person’s intention to transfer property to a certain beneficiary if not documented elsewhere, will be superseded by other estate planning forms or the court’s decisions in the event that a will is not present. Trusts can create many different difficult personal questions and complicated financial issues, but the use of a living trust can be very straightforward and simple when you have the right estate planning attorney to help you go through that process.

If you have an older revocable trust that you want to update, the same guidelines apply. It won’t be formally updated until you’ve clarified that in writing inside the trust documents. Make sure you have a Pasadena estate lawyer who can guide you through that process to avoid potential errors or confusion.

Set up a meeting today to discuss how to create a written trust that accomplishes your individual goal.

 

 

 

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