A Revocable Living Trust is an estate planning document used to transfer one’s property effectively and efficiently upon one’s passing.
Many families and individuals establish a Revocable Living Trust to avoid the probate process. The probate process is a court supervised process to distribute one’s assets, which often times can be a very long and expensive process.
However, establishing your Revocable Living Trust does not complete the Estate Planning process. It is merely the first step in the process to be followed with “funding the trust”. Funding the trust is the process in which you update your assets (such as bank accounts, investment accounts, and real property) to the name of the trust. Failure to update the title of your assets or even mistitling your assets can subject them to the probate process.
Before starting the process of establishing your Revocable Living Trust, it may be beneficial to take an inventory of all of your assets so that you can identify which assets need to be included in the trust. This will help ensure all assets are accounted for and properly updated.