Set up a Living Trust -
You Can't Take it With You!

Protect Your Wealth: Your Seventh Step Toward Financial Freedom

Living Trust...

Remember when your grandparent passed away? Most of your family had to pitch in to scrape up enough money to cover the funeral expenses.

Remember how everyone argued about how much to spend and who didn't contribute enough, what church or funeral home or cemetary to use?

No one knew if there was any life insurance or a pension.

After all of the emotional turmoil ended, there were big questions remaining about what to do with the house and car, and how to get the $300 left in the bank account.

No one was authorized to sign anything. You eventually got thru it, but it was a real mess. These issues could have been easily avoided with a living trust.

Uncle Jack... I had an uncle that owned real estate, a hardware store, and an ice cream franchise. Uncle Jack made a lot of money, but he didn't know much about protecting wealth.

When he died, his long lost son from Alabama surfaced. He hired an attorney who immediately tied everything up in probate court.

Six years later, all of the money, real estate, businesses and everything else was gone.

Uncle Jack's family, including the long lost son, got nothing.

Everything went towards paying the lawyers, accountants, creditors, and the Government. His family had to leave their home. and get on welfare to survive.

If Uncle Jack had a will, a living trust, and term life insurance, his family could have avoided probate court and protected his wealth.

They could have transferred his real estate, cars, bank accounts, businesses, and term life insurance proceeds to his family within days of his death instead of fighting it out in probate court for six years.

Whether you have $2,000 or $200,000 there are a few important things you need to know about protecting and transferring wealth:

What is a revocable living trust?

Why should I set up a trust?

Will my trust protect my property from creditors?

Do I need both a trust and a will?

What about my spouse?

Will a trust protect my proterty from a divorce?

Why should I try to avoid probate?

Will a trust avoid estate taxes?

How to set up a Will or a Trust...

You can set up a will and/or a trust yourself by downloading a software program at www.nolo.com.

Or you can hire an attorney to do it for you (www.lawyers.com). Most attorneys will charge at least $1,500 to $2,500 to prepare a will and/or a living trust for you.

Howewver, there are also some online document preparation services that will prepare a will and/or a trust for you.

After researching several of them, my wife and I decided to use legalzoom to prepare our trusts. We were very satisfied with their service.

You simply answer their online questions and they complete the documents and mail them to you. They are also available to answer questions at any time.

It's reasonably inexpensive, quick, and easy.

Even if you don't have a lot of money, with a good term life insurance policy and effective estate planning, you can make things a lot easier for your family.

After all, you can't take it with you, so set up a trust and get term life insurance. Protect your wealth.

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