Good estate planning ensures that your loved ones receive what you leave them without unnecessary delay or expense. However, that can go out the window when the procedure freezes your estate for months or years. Creating a trust to avoid probate nightmares can go a long way to help your loved ones once you pass.
Waiting months for probate can worsen the grief of losing a loved one. Look no further than the story of Penelope Ormerod, as told by The Guardian.
When Penelope Ormerod applied for probate on her late aunt’s estate, she expected a smooth process. Instead, she waited for seven months due to severe delays in the probate system. Recent reforms and centralization efforts had made the system more unresponsive and left her waiting. Beneficiaries, like her daughter Jessica, had dreams of funding their education on hold. This is one example of the turmoil that can ensue when your estate doesn’t avoid probate.
Trusts are powerful tools in estate planning that can prevent your family from going through similar probate ordeals. Setting up a trust means transferring your assets smoothly and quickly to your loved ones. While the traditional will process often requires probate, a trust operates outside this framework. In many cases, this saves time and reduces stress for your inheritors.
Trusts offer flexible, tailored methods for asset distribution. You can use a trust to give assets under various conditions or for specific purposes. You can establish trusts to provide your beneficiaries with lump sums or structured payouts. This ensures that beneficiaries like the Ormerod’s can avoid probate instead of waiting to receive their inheritance. Preventing delays in accessing an estate’s assets is particularly important for young families supporting minor children or ensuring that a family does not have to change their living arrangements due to court scrutiny of home ownership.
By avoiding probate, trusts can save your family stress, time and money. Probate fees and legal costs add up; setting up a trust can be a cost-effective way to pass on your assets. Trusts can also reduce tax liabilities and get more of your money to your loved ones.
Consider creating a trust so your family can receive their inheritance when you want them to, and avoid the nightmares of a probate. If you want to get started, contact an estate planning attorney. They’ll guide you through the options and help you ensure that your loved ones get what you leave them.
Key Takeaways:
Avoid Probate Delays: Trusts can bypass the lengthy and stressful probate process. As a result, your beneficiaries will receive assets sooner and without undue stress.
Flexible Distribution Options: Trusts provide various ways to distribute assets. Choose from lump sums, structured payouts and other options that best serve your loved ones.
Cost and Time Efficiency: Trustees can save on legal fees and court costs by avoiding probate through a trust. Trusts may also reduce tax liability for your beneficiaries.
Secure Your Legacy: Setting up a trust with the help of an estate planning attorney helps safeguard your wishes when you’re gone.
If you would like to learn more about probate, and how to avoid it, please visit our previous posts.
References: The Guardian (May 2, 2021) “Grieving relatives despair at months of waiting for probate”
SmartAsset (August 25, 2023) “How Does a Beneficiary Get Money From a Trust?”
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