Trusts and Estate Administration

Managing your real property, finances, and other assets for the future can be overwhelming. For future planning, you may need to draft estate-planning documents and plans. You want to make sure you protect your property and assets. Estate planning also allows you to provide for your family members and loved ones when you’re gone.

Trust and estate laws vary by jurisdiction. So, make sure you understand the laws specific to your state. An experienced estate planning attorney can answer your legal questions and help you handle your estate assets.

What Do Estate and Trust Terms Mean?

Estate and trust administration has many unique legal terms, including:

• Decedent: The person who dies
• Beneficiary: The person who receives the assets
• Personal representative: A person who represents the deceased
• Probate court: The court that handles probate administration after death
• Testate: When someone had a valid, enforceable will when they died
• Intestate: When someone didn’t have a valid or enforceable will when they died
• Trust: An agreement that holds trust assets for the trust beneficiaries
• Grantor: The person who creates the trust
• Trustee: The fiduciary responsible for managing the trust funds

Why Do I Need a Will?

A last will and testament is one of the most basic estate planning tools. It can be hard to think about writing a will and planning for after your death, especially if you’re young and healthy. However, our lives are unpredictable. It’s better to have something you don’t need than to need something you don’t have.

When it comes to estate planning, anyone who has anything to their name should consider making a will. This includes real estate, personal property, investment accounts, and bank accounts. A will is a legal document that outlines what happens to your estate assets after you die. You can choose which beneficiaries get specific items you own or leave your assets to a beloved charity.

When you have a valid will, you get to decide what happens to your things and the people in your care. If you don’t create a will, then the estate administration process may not go as you’d like. In some cases, your probate assets may even go to the government.

Dying intestate can make administering an estate complicated and time-consuming. Instead of a beneficiary designation of where your assets go, state laws may determine how to distribute your estate. For example, most states start with children as the first heir. If you don’t have children, your assets go to your siblings, parents, or other relatives.

What Is Probate?

Once a person dies, testate or intestate, their estate often goes through the probate process. Probate is a type of court that executes a person’s will or helps settle their estate if they didn’t have a will. Going through probate can be expensive. With a contested estate, probate can take a long time to settle.

In some states, you don’t have to go through probate if you only have limited assets. With planning, you can keep most of your assets out of probate. This includes making a revocable living trust to use your assets while you are alive and pass them to someone else when you die. You may also be able to avoid estate taxes.

What Is an Executor?

Probate generally requires a named executor. The executor can be a close relative who executes the will and handles the estate. The executor may need to follow a lot of technical and legal processes, like filing income taxes, tying up loose ends like the deceased’s open accounts, and planning the funeral arrangements.

Selecting an executor you trust is a crucial part of estate planning. If you plan ahead by making a will and naming an executor, you also have time to tell them. This way, they’ll know what to expect when that day comes.

What Is a Trust?

Sometimes, people set up trusts in order to leave money and assets to specific people. In a trust, you create an account for a beneficiary. You name a trustee to fulfill the terms of the trust. You can also name a successor trustee. The trustee oversees and manages the beneficiary’s account. You can put certain restrictions on a trust, like a minimum age and maximum amount of money per year.

You can open and create the trust yourself while you’re alive. Depending on the type of trust, you can make the conditions of the trust unchangeable, or you can make them flexible. You can update the trust when you have a major life change.

If you have a child with special needs, a special needs trust can provide for them when you’re no longer able to.

How Do I Plan My Estate?

You may have several options for how you create wills and trusts or make other legal arrangements after you pass. Make sure you follow local estate and tax planning laws. If you try to do something on your own and don’t do it correctly, the mistakes could render your plans unenforceable. An experienced trusts and estates attorney can help you plan for the future.