Friday, November 20, 2009

Should A Revocable Trust Be Part Of Your Estate Plan?

Revocable Trusts have become the central document in basic estate planning over the past several decades, all but replacing the Will. Yet they remain a bit of a mystery to many people, and sometimes we fear the unknown.

What is a Revocable Trust? What does it do? How does it Work? and, perhaps most importantly, Should a revocable trust be part of your estate plan?

I was recently interviewed for an article in e-zine TotallyHer.com regarding these very questions. The article provides a nice primer/overview of the revocable trust. Here's and excerpt:

"What does work is the advice of someone like Kevin W. Davidson, founding member of Davidson Law Office, LLP. In a recent interview, Kevin talked about using revocable trusts as part of your estate planning strategy.

A revocable trust, also known as "living trust", "intervivos trust", and "grantor trust", is essentially a contract between the person (or persons) setting up the trust and placing assets in it, who is referred to as the "grantor", and the person (or persons) who will be responsible for managing the trust, known as the "trustee". The contract spells out what assets belong to the trust, how the assets may be managed, and, ultimately, how the assets will be distributed at the termination of the trusts' purpose, which is usually to hold and protect assets for the benefit of some beneficiaries.

Kevin added this important reminder about trying to define a revocable trust: "The term 'revocable trust' is very generic, and there are dozens of special purpose trusts that fall under the revocable trust genre. Additionally, the specific provisions and clauses that are allowable within a trust are dictated to some extent by statute, and, accordingly, some of the details of how a trust is drafted varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction."

You can read the complete article here.

Appleton Attorney Kevin Davidson is a Wisconsin wills, trusts, estate planning and asset protection lawyer with Davidson Law Office, LLP. Kevin provides personal attention and exceptional legal service to clients throughout the Greater Appleton and Fox River Valley areas and northeast Wisconsin.

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