Here are the top three benefits for a living trust: https://www.legalzoom.com/articles/top-three-benefits-of-a-living-trust
One of the benefits that most people ignore is that a trust kept your will private. If you file with the county PoD or ToD, those information became public and your Son/Daughter may get unsolicidated offers or proposals from service providers. And if you designate a different inherent from your children/spouse, you will face challenges from your family.
My FIL/MIL Transfered their home to their son many years before their passing and their daughters were not informed. As a result, not only that stired up family fude at that time, but also created tentions among siblings even after their passing. Of course, that is an separate issue.
@HouseChatte - usually real estate (especially primary home) held between spouses is titled in such a way that it passes outside of probate anyway. At least that is what I thought.
@bluebayou
Any paper that is recorded with the county will be public information and is searchable online or at the recorder’s office. So, your designated beneficiaries will be exposed to the public. This is true with any probate court documents.
Many scammers use those public information to contact people with valuables.
“here’s the state bill that approved ToD for real property.”
The law passed in 2015! Oh Boy, that is news to me! Never heard of it, you learn new things every day. No wonder the lawyers drastically cut their cost to write living trusts for people. Its not about the competitions.
Hmmmm, I guess it’s a possible issue for potential heirs, as is any scam. Moreover, then how is this any different than my name (and da’ wife) being public record as current owner? Just not seeing the risk here that outweighs the cost of setting up a Trust just for the house.
One thing to note… if you own an out of state property, and if the property is going to be subject to probate, it will have to go through probate in that state. So it makes sense to put your lake house or a Maui condo into a trust or an LLC.
“then how is this any different than my name (and da’ wife) being public record as current owner”
This might have little impact for Adults, but for a minor, you do not want to let the scammers know that your 6 yr old’s name and address, in addition to have the opportunity to inherit a house, say in “Palo Alto”…
Also, You really don’t want to make public of your ToD excludes some one in the family or include a charity without the consent of your decendents.
A friend of mine stop talking to her dad when she found out that he excluded her from a $5 Million estate in his will. Just because they do not get along. I am sure she is going to fight it in court tooth and nail once her dad passed away.
Avoid or limit the scope of a probate. Minimize taxes and expense. Joint tenancies, life estates and trusts. Memorialize it if you want it implemented. The unimaginable often occurs. Provide for succession. Even if you disown them account for them in a bequeath. Pay an attorney to implement your decisions not make them.
My parents named these duties (POA, executor) based on their childrens’ strengths, personalities, and locations. My sister was the one in town, so she had the POA and was doing more of the caretaking/medical stuff. Since I was out of town, and have more of a financial/business leaning, I was named executor and took on duties like that after they passed away. It worked out well. I could see how co-executors could be tricky and hold up the process, especially if any of the family doesn’t live in the same town.
"but the beauty of PoD/ToD is that there is little left of the estate to sue. "
I am not sure about that, if the money is big enough there will be law suits, no matter what.
You can do anything to the estate, but when the money is large enough(ie over $1 billion) there are lawyers can start to do some thing no matter what. Especially if you want disinherit some one from the estate.
Here is an article realted: https://info.legalzoom.com/exclude-people-making-will-4200.html
In my friends case, according to the will, she got nothing from the $5M estate so she will fight for it no matter what.
I suggest that you and your spouse make each other your executors, with your sons (both of them) as backup co-executors. This way, your sons don’t have to deal with the paperwork when the first one of you dies, only when the second one does.
I suggest making them co-executors because you can’t know now what their family situations will be at the time. My (divorced) parents made my sister and me co-executors on their wills. If there hadn’t been complicating factors, one of us would have resigned so that the paperwork wouldn’t all have to be signed by two people who live on opposite sides of the country. But in fact, there was a complicating factor – my husband. He didn’t want me to resign because he didn’t trust my sister’s judgment. And my sister didn’t want to resign because she didn’t trust my husband. So it was better for us to be co-executors even though it was more work.
@Hoggirl right, both my mother and MIL seamlessly assumed title to their homes when widowed. What I muddled saying was that DH as trustee was able to sell his mother’s home without it having to go through probate, because she had the house titled in her trust.
He’s had a confusing year-plus, sometimes wearing his executor hat and sometimes trustee, but the extra steps she took saved a lot of money and headaches.
How often are people who are specifically excluded from receiving anything successful at contesting or suing for more? Or do they just end up draining their own and the estate’s money with lawyer fees?