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People often ask how much a will or a trust costs. In this post, we look at the overall financial involvement, from implementation until after death, of having a Last Will-based Legal Plan versus a Revocable Living Trust based Legal Program.

For most, there are two different ways you can leave your estate to your survivors - through your Last Will and Testament, or through your Revocable Living Trust.

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It is generally less expensive to establish a Last Will based Estate Planning Program because with a Will Plan, you will leave all of your assets in your name. You won't need to re-title your home, your other property, your investments, or other assets into a trust's name. However, when you pass away, your assets will be frozen, and your executor and heirs must go through a court-supervised process to remove your name from your home, investments, and other "probate assets."

When you set up your revocable living trust, and re-title assets in your trust, you are arranging your affairs in such a way that your trust assets will not be frozen when you die. Your trustee, when you pass away, retains the authority to access, manage, and transfer your trust assets to your trust beneficiaries in the manner you arranged in your trust instrument. In effect, your trust replaces your last will.

While there is generally more cash outlay up front for the legal services necessary to set up a trust versus a will, the overall cash outlay considering the two probates the family must go through when each spouse dies, typically far surpasses the outlay of setting up the living trust and avoiding the two probates.

This post is for informational purposes only and does not provide legal advice. Please do not act or refrain from acting based on anything you read on this site. Using this site or communicating with Rabalais Estate Planning, LLC, through this site does not form an attorney/client relationship.

Paul Rabalais
Estate Planning Attorney
www.RabalaisEstatePlanning.com
Phone: (225) 329-2450