How You Can Save Thousands Of Dollars
With A Living Trust!
(Page 3)

1. Establishing a Living Trust, but forgetting or neglecting to put all assets into the trust. This is the most common mistake we see.

And, it is a huge one!

Setting up your Living Trust is just the first step.

If you forget, or just don't get around to transferring some or all of your assets into the trust... all assets left out of the trust will end up going through the public probate process!

Yes, believe it or not, we've actually seen people spend money to set up a sophisticated trust arrangement, and then either pass away or become disabled before transferring assets into the trust.

So what they've done, is waste time and money, without a penny of financial benefit to their family.

A big mistake wouldn't you agree?

So... if you decide to set up a Living Trust please make sure to have the "right people" get the assets out of your name, into the name of the trust! (We have a step-by-step procedure checklist for you to follow to make sure it is done properly)

2. Thinking a Living Trust will save you income and all estate taxes. I can't tell you how many times people come into the office and want to discuss Living Trusts, thinking they will save either income or eliminate estate taxes.

Read carefully please.

A Living Trust cannot save you one nickel in income taxes. If you are single it cannot save you any estate taxes.

Many people are under a major misconception that a Living Trust can and will save you taxes. This simply isn't so.

There are many, many ways to save income and estate taxes with other types of estate planning techniques.

If you are married and set up a proper "A/B" trust you can utilize each spouse's personal exemption ($650,000 for 1999 increasing to $1,000,000 by 2006) which is usually lost when a married couple hold title as joint tenants.

So, for right now though...

Please understand, that Living Trusts are NOT to be used as a tax planning tool! They only allow you to keep what you are entitled to, nothing extra!

3. All Living Trusts Are The Same.

A lot of people think that a Living Trust is just a form that can be pulled off a bookshelf or printed out of a computer. The unsettling fact is, all Living Trusts are NOT created equal!

True, most Living Trusts are similar. You can buy one off the bookshelf that is three pages long or have a professional estate planning attorney with 20 years experience draft 40 to 50 pages of important provisions. Which one will you need?

The problem is. . .when will you know whether you needed a bookshelf cheapie or the attorney "Cadillac" Living Trust?

When you die it's a little too late!

You see, you have to be careful about who you have prepare your Living Trust. First of all, it should be done by an estate planning attorney, because if it isn't, you're asking for trouble right away.

Second, whoever prepares your trust should be experienced in drawing up trusts and do this everyday for a living, not dabble in it on the side. Some attorneys only produce a dozen or so Living Trusts in an entire year; I certainly wouldn't want to get heart surgery done by a surgeon who has only performed a couple of operations, or worse yet, by a general practitioner!

Think about this. . .most law schools don't even teach attorneys about Living Trusts or how to draft them! The attorney that doesn't have a lot of experience drawing Trusts, is learning how to do it -- with you as the guinea pig!

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