Simple Wills Or Simple Trust - How Do You Know If You Are Simple?
Nine times out of ten, the first thing I hear as an estate planning attorney from a prospective client is "I need Simple Wills.
" My response is, "you are most likely right but in our first meeting I would like to also explain the Simple Trust.
" About 80% of the time after a client learns of the benefits of a simple trust, they choose it over simple wills.
The primary benefit the living trust has over the will is keeping the family and estate out of court upon death.
This usually saves over a year of post death administration time as well as thousands of dollars in attorney fees.
Okay, so most people will choose the trust over the will but what does it mean to have a "simple" situation? In my law practice, I define simple as an estate that is less than the federal estate tax exemption amount of $3,500,000.
00 and any state imposed estate tax.
An example of a state imposed estate tax is Minnesota which levies estate tax on estates over 1,000,000.
00.
If an estate is under the above limits, then in most cases all you need to decide is:
All you have to do is a little research on the internet to learn the mechanics of the living trust or will and you can save hundreds or thousands of dollars.
" My response is, "you are most likely right but in our first meeting I would like to also explain the Simple Trust.
" About 80% of the time after a client learns of the benefits of a simple trust, they choose it over simple wills.
The primary benefit the living trust has over the will is keeping the family and estate out of court upon death.
This usually saves over a year of post death administration time as well as thousands of dollars in attorney fees.
Okay, so most people will choose the trust over the will but what does it mean to have a "simple" situation? In my law practice, I define simple as an estate that is less than the federal estate tax exemption amount of $3,500,000.
00 and any state imposed estate tax.
An example of a state imposed estate tax is Minnesota which levies estate tax on estates over 1,000,000.
00.
If an estate is under the above limits, then in most cases all you need to decide is:
- Who your property and other assets should go at your death;
- The percentages or amounts should they receive; and
- Who should be the person or persons to help with this administration.
All you have to do is a little research on the internet to learn the mechanics of the living trust or will and you can save hundreds or thousands of dollars.
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