A Different Look at A Living Trust!
Some time ago, Congress made certain changes to the estate taxes. As a result of the changes, effective January, 2004, the tax free amount increased to $1,500,000. (Back in 1997 it was $600,000.) This allows a married couple to leave a minimum of $3,000,000 tax free.
Why Avoid Probate
Do you have friends or relatives that have experienced probate? If you do, their advice more then likely will be, to do anything you can to avoid it. If you are unfamiliar with probate and the problems it can create, find out what you can do to avoid it.
Estate Planning Problems
Probate is the system used by the state to deal with your estate. Two main functions of probate are to identify the rightful heirs to the estate and the share size that each heir will receive, and to replace your name with that of your heirs on the legal title of the property. Assuming you don’t have any kind of revocable living trust arrangements, but you do have a will, the state will be able to determine your rightful heirs and the portion of your estate each will receive. If you don’t have even a will, the state will decide on who and what portion each heir will receive, using its own procedures. Unfortunately, after you are gone, the only way your property ownership can be re-titled is through court probate procedures and supervision.
Looking at Living Trust
Some time ago, Congress made certain changes to the estate taxes. As a result of the changes, effective January, 2004, the tax free amount increased to $1,500,000. (Back in 1997 it was $600,000.) This allows a married couple to leave a minimum of $3,000,000 tax free.
Avoid Probate
First of all, what is probate? We've heard various things about probate and we are pretty sure that it deals with court matters that involve our property. We generally know that probate is something that happens after we die and it’s a negative experience because it is expensive and it takes a lot of time. True, the two main problems with probate are that it can take up to a year to accomplish its own goals (not ours) and it is an expensive purchase of attorney advice and court costs when it may not be necessary at all.
Should You Try to Avoid Probate
First of all, what is probate? We've heard various things about probate and we are pretty sure that it deals with court matters that involve our property. We generally know that probate is something that happens after we die and it’s a negative experience because it is expensive and it takes a lot of time. True, the two main problems with probate are that it can take up to a year to accomplish its own goals (not ours) and it is an expensive purchase of attorney advice and court costs when it may not be necessary at all.
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