Living Trusts -- What’s All the Fuss?

   Whom do you trust?  Most of us have a small circle of family members or friends whom we trust. Some we trust more than others. Some we would trust with our lives. Others we trust only insofar as they earn our confidence. Our automobile mechanic, our doctor, our lawyer, our banker -- all of these people need to earn our trust. Some pass, some fail.
   Ironically, many of us place inordinate trust in folks we do not even know. If you have a “Last Will and Testament” as your estate plan, you are saying, in effect, “I trust the probate court to carry out my wishes exactly as I have set them forth in my will, to protect my estate from disgruntled relatives, and to quickly distribute my estate to my named heirs and beneficiaries. Since I will not be there to defend or explain my intentions, I trust the judge to ward off any and all challenges so that my will is held valid. I trust probate more than I trust my spouse, my children, my closest family members, my friends, and myself. Even though I do not know the judge who will be presiding over the distribution of my estate, I trust him or her with everything I have accumulated during my lifetime.”
Where there’s a will, there’s probate
   Probate is the court process that, upon your death, takes control of the administration and distribution of your estate. The court makes every effort to follow the dictates of your will, ...