Very good! You have clearly been able to understand the importance of providing a legal roadmap for your family to ensure your assets are distributed according to your wishes. A Will also provides authority for someone to take care of your estate. This person is called an Executor or Personal Representative. If you have minor children, a Will also allows you to nominate legal guardians for your children as well as establish trusts that will be used to hold assets for the benefit of your minor children.
Some of you may have invested in revocable living trusts instead of a Will to use as your means to transfer property after your death. These trusts can be very useful and, unlike Wills, have legal effect while you are alive which provides a management tool should you become incapacitated.
The key to success with a trust, however, is to ensure that all of your probate assets are titled in the name of the trust during your lifetime. If properly titled, your trustee will avoid having to go to court after your death to transfer assets into the trust for distribution to your beneficiaries. A good revocable living trust plan will include what is known as a "pour-over" Will to act as a safety net in case some probate assets are not properly titled. This Will, unlike the Will described above, serves only to move your probate assets into the trust for distribution in accordance with the terms of your trust. If you've planned well, this safety net will never be needed.
Having a legally valid Will or trust with pour-over Will makes things significantly easier for your family at a time of great emotional stress. No one likes to think about their death. However, your ability to work through this difficult fact has provided them with a critical part of your own Peace of Mind plan.
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