Is your Revocable Living Trust eliminating probate costs as it should?

In our experience it is common for those with revocable living trusts to ignore titling assets in the trust or attempting to direct things that don’t need to go into the trust. If you set up a trust your home, checking account and other bank accounts are many times not retiled into the trust resulting on having to include those assets in the probate estate. This typically stems from a lack of follow through during the planning process. Assets that pass through a beneficiary provision such as retirement plans, life insurance and annuities do not require probate unless the estate is the beneficiary. Making the trust the beneficiary of Life insurance may make sense if there are special distribution provisions in the trust. On the other hand, those distribution requirements of the trust may not be desirable if the life insurance is being used for a specific trust unless outlined in the trust. Making the trust the beneficiary of your retirement assets and annuities may not be desirable because it may force a lump sum distribution of the assets. Columbus coordinates assets it manages for client with the estate planning attorney of its clients.