Attorney Thomas B. Burton answers the following question: What is a Revocable Living Trust in Wisconsin? Attorney Burton answers this question and discusses how a revocable living trust works to protect you and your assets both during your life and after your death.
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Transcript of Video: What is a Revocable Living Trust in Wisconsin?
Today's question is the following what is a revocable living trust in Wisconsin
so this is a great question and one I see come up frequently in my estate planning
practice here at my office so when I'm sitting
down with clients I often say a good way to think about a revocable
living trust is it's like setting up a company for
your assets and personal affairs that will outlive
you so if you think about a company like
Walmart or Target or some other publicly traded
company like Exxon Mobil or something that company has existed for decades
and it will continue to exist if it keeps going
in business beyond the current tenure of whoever is the CEO
right now for instance Sam Walton started Walmart
but Walmart is still going after Sam Walton's death
Why? that's because a corporation like Walmart
has in theory a perpetual life it can keep going as long as it's making money
and staying in business the same with your revocable living
trust you set it up during your life and the reason we call it revocable
means you are free to change it during your life at any time you wish
and it's a living trust meaning it's during your lifetime
but the trust can be set up to continue both during your life and after your
death for whatever period of time is
appropriate so a lot of revocable living trusts are set up to go
during your life and after death and then wrap things up a year or two
after you're gone but some trusts can be set up to go
for a long time let's say you have a child with special needs that needs
care or to care for your pets or minor children
so it just depends on your specific situation how long the trust goes
but in general to form a revocable living trust in Wisconsin
you work with a qualified estate planning attorney
we talk about your wishes and desires and then you need to
draft the trust document and sign it in Wisconsin all that's required to form
a trust is that you sign it at my office I usually have you execute it
in front of a notary public because this is something banks and
other institutions you may deal with like to see but it is not strictly
required to be legal you simply need to sign the
trust this is another reason a trust can be a
great estate planning what we call a will substitute instead
of a will you can have all your assets pass
under a revocable living trust and avoid probate upon your debt
and also provide incapacity protection during your lifetime so another
important benefit to revocable living trust
is that not only can it help you after you're gone
but let's say you're alive but incapacitated with a health
condition you can have your successor trustee take over and manage your
property and affairs while you're in poor health and then you
can resume those duties when you recover and
it's very seamless with a revocable living trust and the banks and financial
institutions are used to working with trustees under trust documents
so great question about how to form a revocable living
trust in Wisconsin and thank you for asking!
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