A typical trust package with our firm includes the following documents:
✦ Revocable Living Trust;
✦ Last Will & Testament (for each spouse, if applicable);
✦ Durable Power of Attorney (for each spouse, if applicable);
✦ Designation of Health Care Surrogate (for each spouse, if applicable);
✦ Living Will (for each spouse, if applicable); and
✦ Lady Bird Deed (if applicable).
Additionally, the fee for a trust package includes all meetings to discuss your wishes and a signing conference with two witnesses and a notary.
To learn more about the documents listed above, keep reading!
A Revocable Living Trust…
✦ Is revocable! And under normal circumstances it can be amended during life. Essentially, it’s a basket for your assets that allows you to transfer them outside of probate after you pass. You retain full control over your assets while you are alive.
✦ Does not protect your assets from creditor claims. This is a common misconception.
✦ Allows you to avoid probate if all assets are titled properly and all financial accounts (POD and TOD accounts) have named beneficiaries.
✦ Is a valuable estate planning tool that allows for the fast, easy and discreet administration of your estate.
✦ Can help ensure your minor children, grandchildren, pets and disabled loved ones are taken care of after you pass.
✦ Can place limitations on inheritance (spreading distributions out over time, delaying distributions until a certain age, etc.).
✦ Is your best defense against a guardianship proceeding (when paired with properly executed powers of attorney). We wish more people knew about this! Even if you feel that your estate is not very large, and even if you don’t own any real estate, you can benefit from setting up a revocable living trust.
✦ Typically names you (and your spouse, if applicable) as the initial trustee(s).
✦ Names your successor trustee.
A Last Will & Testament…
✦ Names a personal representative for your probate estate.
✦ Names beneficiaries who will receive your property. However, the type of will included with the trust package is called a “pour-over” will because it essentially “pours” any personal assets “over” into your trust estate (names the trust as your beneficiary). Typically, one of the goals in estate planning is to avoid probate altogether, but in the event you (for example) purchased new real estate (in the future) and didn’t tell us, or you opened a new bank account and forget to name any beneficiaries, well… these scenarios would require a probate case to be opened in order to pour those assets into your trust.
✦ States your requests regarding burial and/or cremation.
✦ States your requests regarding who should be named guardian of your minor child(ren) if you are a parent of children under age 18.
If a person dies without a Will, their property is distributed in accordance with the laws of intestacy for the State of Florida.
A Durable Power of Attorney…
✦ Is valid upon execution and survives mental incapacity of the “principal.”
✦ Becomes invalid upon death.
✦ Gives the “agent” power to manage the principal’s property in a variety of ways.
A Designation of Health Care Surrogate…
✦ Is a type of power of attorney that designates someone to make healthcare decisions for you if the need arises.
✦ Authorizes the release of HIPAA protected information to the person you have selected to assist with healthcare decision-making.
✦ States whether or not you wish to be an organ donor.
✦ Can be designed to be valid upon execution, or to be a “springing” document which becomes effective only in the event of incapacity.
A Living Will…
✦ Expresses your wishes regarding life support.
✦ Is not the same thing as a DNR.
A Lady Bird Deed…
✦ Provides you with an “enhanced life estate” in your house, giving you full power and authority to sell or transfer your house during life, and then automatically transfers your house to your trust after you pass.
✦ Can be executed for each piece of real property you own in the State of Florida.