If your revocable living trust was not properly funded, it may not work for your family when they need it to. That means your family could still end up in probate in order to deal with your assets, which means additional time, expense, and delay for them.

One of the primary reasons for choosing a revocable living trust over a will is to save your family from having to go through the probate process in order to deal with your assets after your passing. However, in order for your trust to function as intended, you have to actually transfer your assets into it. The process of transferring your assets into your trust is known as funding.

Far too often, I meet with clients who set up a revocable living trust but their previous attorney either never told them that they needed to transfer their assets into the trust, or did tell them and the clients never did it, did not know how, or transferred some but not all of their assets.

For all intents and purposes, they would pass away without an estate plan. Yes, you read that right. In general, judges handle assets outside of a trust as if no will or trust existed. They generally do not look to the trust to determine what should happen to any assets outside of the trust.

To read more about the importance of properly funding your revocable living trust so that it will work for your family when need, click here.

Chuck Roulet
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Nationally Recognized Estate Planning Attorney, Author, and Speaker
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