Wills and Living Wills Article


Revocable Living Trust

A trust is a contract between yourself as the Trustmaker/Grantor/Settlor/Trustor and yourself (typically) as Trustee (the person that manages the trust). You can change or revoke the trust at any time that you have capacity.


You can specify who determines your disability. You can set out the terms of the trust to handle distribution while you are alive and well, alive and disabled, and not alive. The trust handles both disability and providing for your beneficiaries. You can set the terms for how and when your beneficiaries receive assets from the trust. If the beneficiary has disabilities, a special needs trust may be appropriate.


You may want assets held in trust for a minor beneficiary. If a beneficiary is going through bankruptcy or has creditor issues, you may want to draft the trust so that the beneficiary cannot demand the money from the Trustee. Sometimes trusts are set up to provide protection in event of divorce (if the beneficiary receives the money outright and then commingles it with spouse, it can be hard to trace what is left, if anything, if the inheritance and amounts not traceable are included in what is divided in the divorce).


Consult an estate planning attorney to review your goals/wishes and the various options in this area.


Make sure you properly fund your trust after signing it and review all beneficiary designations to make sure they meet your wishes. It will be frustrating for your Trustee to not only have to do the trust administration but also the probate because you “forgot” to change title on an asset into your trust.


Comments:

QUESTIONS

  • Is there a way to read a will without contacting the surviving spouse and/or immediate family?
  • I need to go into court and file some emergency paperwork because MerrillLynch USTRUST are doing some really bad things and after giving me monthly distributions for last 2 years of $3000 and paying all my expenses they just Stopped and I haven't seen my statements in a few months and I couldn't even get a letter from trust officer to give DES for emergency food stamps. My Aunt is reason behind this. My Dad adopted us girls therefore she did not consider us family. She sits on board with former CEO of merrilllynch ustrust of this mutual fund they invested all of our $ in afterDadpassed.
  • My grandfather is 91 and not expected to live much longer. He has a house valued at 60K but he owes 50K on it. The house is deeded to "the trust of..." Who gets the house upon his death and also, who is responsible for maintaining the payments? I am the executor of his will and current POA for him but there is no special provision regarding real estate. He does have a trust set up and we only have the "abstract of trust" that states who the trustee is upon his death.
  • My sister died in April leaving her estate to 2 foster children. Her personal representative quit in May and no one has assumed control of the estate and he has not turned it over to anyone. I fear the home will go into foreclosure. I would like to have a private fiduciary take over, what do I have to do to make that happen? The foster children are listed as her only heirs, my brothers are furious, can they prevent a private fiduciary from assuming control and force the foreclosure and loss of her estate? I don't have funds to hire a lawyer, how can I get this accomplished?
  • Our living TRUST was updated for the state of California; should it be updated for Arizona since this is now our primary residence?
  • What is the difference between a 'living will' and a 'last will and testament' type of will?
  • what are the legal obligations/duties of the administrator to the other beneficiaries.
  • Both of my parents have passed away leaving their small estate in a trust. I am the executor of the trust. The estate is small and fall within the dollar limits of real estate and personal property within the estate, where probate proceedings are not required. My question is; to complete the estate, do I need to To complete the estate, so I need to place a “Notice to Creditors” in a newspaper as described in A.R.S. 14-3801? (There are no known creditors).
  • Does a notorized statement overide a power of attorney
  • What makes a Will valid in the state of Arizona

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RELATED ARTICLES

Life Care Planning Packet (Advanced Directives), Information and Documents from the Arizona Attorney General

Staying in Charge of Your Future

LINKS

Arizona Office of the Attorney General

AZ Office of the Attorney General Life Care Planning Packet

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