You have created your Living Trust. If you are like most people, you put the documents in a reasonably safe place and after some of the initial changes to your accounts there was no further follow up. Most of us don’t think that there are many changes possibly affecting our trust assets. But that’s typically not true. In any two-year period there are often changes worth discussing with your Attorney.
It’s so important to review your trust funding. Only through your own diligence will the trust and your other Estate Planning tools work the way that you intended.
Real Estate Interests:
Have your real property interests been transferred into the living trust? This would be done by deed in most instances. Changes to your prior real estate investments, or additions to your portfolio, may suggest a review with your Attorney. Has your prior residence now been changed to investment real estate? Did you previously use a transfer on death instrument (TODI) that should be reviewed?
Changes to your beneficiaries, changes to your plans for holding or distributing the real estate currently and after you have passed away, and changes affecting children and others who may inherit your real estate are important considerations.
Important situations that should trigger a discussion: Death or disability of a joint owner or beneficiary, and changes to the property or your expectations and plans for the property and its use, and changes to your residence/domicile, to name a few.
Business Interests, Including S-Corps and LLCs:
Have changes taken place with your Business activities? Are there new Members who have joined your LLC or new persons involved in your subchapter-S or other corporation? Will there be plans soon to consider succession of the business interests?
Changes in management, operations, and participants’ expectations can trigger important discussions about your living trust and estate plans. This may include modifications to the Operating Agreement for the LLC or amendments to the ByLaws for the corporation.
Changes In Accounts, Including IRA and 401k Accounts:
For living trusts and estate planning generally, there are useful considerations prompted by two areas of change, in particular.
Significant change in the health or other activities affecting your beneficiaries? Consideration of protections for your beneficiaries in these circumstances may involve the Account and the plan beneficiaries in order to avoid having your inherited IRA and 401k funds reachable by a beneficiary’s creditors, or affecting eligibility of beneficiaries for medical or other programs. In many instances, the timing of your trust and other estate planning may be key to putting important protections into place.
Changes to your accounts of all types, including financial investment accounts, Bank and CD accounts, and others, may have been made without consideration of whether those accounts should be titled in the name of your estate planning living trust. If you have not reviewed your accounts since creation of your living trust, or you have made changes to your accounts or recently opened new accounts, engage your Attorney for a follow-up review so that simple, worthwhile changes can be made.
You invested in your living trust and in your updates to your Will and Powers of Attorney for your estate planning purposes. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to accomplish an important review to make sure that your expectations will be followed and your assets are properly covered.
The Attorneys at Marc D Sherman & Colleagues PC can assist you with your review. Reach out to make an appointment: https://mshermanlaw.com/contact/
