There are always a lot of overlooked reasons to seek out an estate planner. In this short article, three of them will be covered. The first is to avoid disinheriting children. When there are children from previous marriages involved and if you do not plan correctly, a stepfather or stepmother can end up in full control of assets. They can even pass the assets down to their own children from a new spouse or a previous marriage! In this case, you want to look into using a living trust to ensure the assets go where you intend.
A second overlooked reason to seek out an estate planner is for divorce inheritance protection. The divorce rate in this country is unfortunately high and if you do not plan correctly by specially designing an appropriate trust, your child’s inheritance could end up going to an ex wife or husband. By keeping assets in this trust, a trustee will be in control. They can invest or spend the income in the trust and this trust even has a bonus of protection from creditors and bankruptcy.
The final overlooked reason in this article is that a trust is always better than probate. Simply put, costs are always lower if you can avoid probate through creating a living trust. This is not iron clad, but you can also take steps such as titling assets in your name like bank accounts, stocks, bonds, etc. to help avoid probate.
When you choose the right attorney, such as Ron Otten at Estate Planning Solutions, you can get things planned correctly to avoid a lot of problems and fees down the road.
(This article is a summation, please refer to this LINK for the original article)