Revocable living trusts offer privacy, flexibility, and the ability to avoid probate for funded assets. They let you adjust distributions as family circumstances change and manage assets if you become unable to handle them yourself. Proper funding and careful drafting ensure your goals are met while maintaining control.
A comprehensive plan provides continuous asset management, reduces exposure to probate, and preserves privacy for family members, even during transitions such as incapacity or relocation.
We combine local accessibility with clear guidance on revocable living trusts, ensuring you understand options, timelines, and costs from the first meeting.
We set up a maintenance plan with periodic reviews, asset updates, and life event check-ins to keep your plan current.
A revocable living trust is a trust you create during life that you can modify or revoke. It holds assets that you place into the trust and provides privacy and flexibility. You remain in control as trustee, and the trust can streamline asset transfer after death. Funding the trust is essential for effectiveness and privacy.
Assets placed in a revocable living trust and properly funded pass outside probate at death, allowing a smoother transition to beneficiaries. If assets are not funded, probate may still apply to those holdings. A plan that coordinates with a will and healthcare directives enhances overall estate management.
Funding involves transferring real estate into the trust, retitling bank and brokerage accounts, and updating beneficiary designations on life insurance and retirement plans. This step is essential to realize probate avoidance and ensure the trust controls assets; our team assists with documentation and timely funding.
People who value privacy, probate avoidance, or a seamless plan for incapacity should consider a revocable living trust. Those with real estate, business interests, or family complexity benefit from professional guidance to align funding and distributions with long-term goals.
After the grantor’s death, the successor trustee administers assets per the trust terms, often distributing to beneficiaries without probate. The trust directs how assets are managed, when distributions occur, and how debts and taxes are addressed, avoiding delays common with intestate estates.
In Maryland, a revocable trust does not automatically reduce estate taxes by itself, but it can fit into a broader plan that leverages exemptions and gift strategies. Tax efficiency often comes from coordinating with wills, powers of attorney, and properly structured trusts.
A successor trustee administers the trust after the grantor’s death or incapacity, managing assets, keeping records, and distributing proceeds according to the trust terms. The role requires prudence, impartiality, and clear communication with beneficiaries and co-trustees when applicable.
Trusts should be reviewed periodically and after major life events such as marriage, births, moves, or changes in finances or law. Regular reviews help ensure beneficiary designations, asset lists, and funding remain aligned with your current goals.
A will governs asset distribution not placed in a trust and may require probate, while a trust governs assets placed into it and can avoid probate for those items. Wills complement trusts by addressing gaps and ensuring comprehensive coverage of your wishes.
To start, contact our Perry Hall office for an initial consultation. We will review goals, explain options, and outline a plan, including timing and costs. From there, we draft documents, fund the trust, and guide you through signing and implementation.
