Should you use a form you find online when creating a trust? Learn more about how revocable trusts work and why a lawyer is recommended.
Revocable trusts are one of the most powerful and common tools used in the estate planning process. To break it down, a revocable trust is contractual agreement between you; the grantor and the trustee, who manages the trust.
You may serve as a trustee initially, but will also need to name a successor if you become incapacitated. All too often, people find common legal documents such as those to form a revocable living trust online. This can lead to big mistakes because standard forms don’t account for unique differences in the various estate planning requirements and might even be considered invalid when reviewed by a court.
Using standardized forms or simply filling out a piece of paper and assuming that this will protect you and then later discovering that the trust was never properly funded and therefore, can’t exist as a trust could pose a variety of different problems. If you try to place the assets inside the trust for privacy purposes, no assets being formally placed inside of it will reap this benefit. Furthermore, if you use the trust as an estate planning tool to help protect your assets from creditors or predators, this information could be accessed or even named in a lawsuit.
The various problems associated with standard forms linked to your estate planning documents can cause havoc that follows you for years to come and can even become so problematic that it fails to pass on your assets to your loved ones as you intended. Schedule a consultation today with an experienced trust planning lawyer. Â
