A revocable living trust provides privacy, simple management, and potential probate avoidance for many assets. It allows you to revise terms as needs change while maintaining control as grantor. When funded correctly, it minimizes family conflict and helps ensure your instructions are followed by trusted successors.
A unified plan minimizes contradictions between documents, making administration straightforward for trustees and loved ones. Clear definitions, roles, and distributions support quicker decision-making in complex family situations.
Our Maryland-based firm focuses on practical, client-centered planning, offering clear explanations, transparent pricing, and collaborative drafting. We work with you to align documents with your goals while respecting your timeline and budget.
We establish a plan for periodic reviews, updates after life events, and coordination with trustees to keep the trust current and effective.
A revocable living trust is a legal document that places assets into a trust during your lifetime, allows you to manage them, and sets out how they are distributed after death. Unlike a will, it generally avoids probate and remains private. This structure supports ongoing control and privacy for your family. In Maryland, it integrates with other planning tools to address incapacity and successor management. Also, funding is essential for effectiveness, as an unfunded trust provides little protection.
Funding the trust means transferring ownership of assets into the trust’s name. This includes real estate, bank and investment accounts, and valuable possessions. Proper funding is critical to realize the trust’s benefits, such as privacy and streamlined administration. Without funding, the trust may not control assets at death or incapacity, and probate risks remain.
The trustee oversees trust administration and distributions, and can be a trusted individual or a professional fiduciary. Some families choose a family member, while others select a bank or trust company to manage investments and filings. It is common to name a successor trustee to take over if the original trustee cannot serve.
Yes. Incapacity planning, including durable powers of attorney and instructions within the trust, helps manage finances if you cannot. A revocable trust can specify how decisions are made, who steps in, and how guardianship or support arrangements are activated, providing continuity for your family during medical or cognitive changes.
Generally, a revocable living trust does not create a separate tax liability for the grantor, since the grantor maintains control. However, certain trust-generated income or transfer features may affect estate or gift tax planning. Our team coordinates with tax professionals to align your trust with overall tax goals.
Review your trust at least every three to five years or after major life events such as marriage, the birth of a child, divorce, relocation, or significant changes in assets. Regular checks ensure beneficiary designations, powers of appointment, and funding stay aligned with your objectives and current laws.
Include assets that you would want to pass privately and efficiently, such as real estate, accounts, business interests, and valuable personal property. Ensure titles reflect the trust, and consider assets with beneficiary designations or tax implications. Non-funded or non-designated assets may bypass the trust unintentionally.
In Maryland, a properly funded revocable living trust can avoid probate for those assets placed in the trust. However, not all assets qualify, and some may still pass through a will or other designations. Our team evaluates your entire asset mix to optimize probate avoidance where possible.
Multi-state real estate can complicate planning. A trust can be structured to coordinate titling across states, reduce multi-probate costs, and streamline administration. We address state-specific requirements and ensure consistent distributions regardless of where the assets reside.
Bring identification, a list of assets (real estate, bank and investment accounts, retirement plans), current deeds or titles, outstanding debt information, and any existing estate documents. If you have family goals or concerns, note those as well to help tailor the plan from the first meeting.
