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Wills & Trust Menu
All retiree’s and their spouses should have a will. A will is the basic tool
that you need to distribute your assets to those who you wish to inherit it.
Property left by a will is subject to probate and you can avoid probate with the
use of joint tenancy, Pay On Death (POD) asset registration, beneficiary
designations, and basic revocable living trusts. When you use these probate
avoidance methods the main purpose of the will is to designate a guardian for
minor children, transfer some property that is difficult to transfer otherwise
such as vehicles, and to transfer all residual estate property to your heirs.
The will captures your residual estate that includes unexpected gifts, lottery
winnings, or asset acquisitions that you did not have time to register using
other probate avoidance techniques.
Plan Your Estate
is an indispensable estate planning guide
that describes everything you need to know and what to do in easy-to-follow
steps.
Quicken WillMaker Plus
is an excellent software program for you to use to write your
own wills and trust documents. I highly recommend all federal employees who are
approaching retirement and those who are already retired who haven’t completed
an estate plan to use these resources to guide them through this process.
A living trust is a simple document that allows you to transfer property
direct to your heirs after your death without going through probate. Probate
delays the distribution of your assets for a year or longer and the attorney
costs can be as much as 5% or more of the estate’s value. Trusts are ideal for
transferring stocks, bonds, homes, collectables, antiques, and other assets that
you can’t easily transfer through POD, joint tenancy or beneficiary
designations. Typically you name the trust after the originator, called the
trustee. For example if you have stocks that you want to add to your trust you
would transfer registration from your name to “(Your Name), as trustee for the
(Your Name) Trust.”
As trustee you have full control over all assets in the trust for as long as
you live. You can sell all trust assets and use them anyway you choose. Only
after you die does the trust become irrevocable and the successor trustee that
you designate in the trust document follows your wishes and distributes your
assets according to your wishes.
Trusts have many benefits and several of the major ones are probate
avoidance, the ability to list any asset in the trust even those items such as
collectables that don’t have legal registrations like homes, stocks and bonds.
You can simply make a list of your coin collections, memorabilia, antiques, and
art with good descriptions and add this list to your trust documents. Then, your
successor trustee will be able to distribute the assets direct to your heirs
soon after you die without going through probate. Another advantage is that
unlike a will that is registered with the county and a public record, a trust
document is confidential and does not have to be registered with the county.
Only your successor trustee and heirs who are inheriting will know what is in
the document.
You can easily write your own wills with
Quicken WillMaker Plus
software and with the book
Plan Your Estate
you will have the ultimate estate planning
tools and they describe
everything you need to do in easy-to-follow steps. This software
automates the process and all you have to do is answer questions and from your
answers the software program draws up your wills, health directives, and powers
of attorney with full
instructions on how to proceed.
Quicken WillMaker Plus
create wills
and estate documents
specifically for your state and in accordance with current state law. You can
modify your wills and trusts as the need arises with this program and your are
guided along the way so you are never left guessing what to do next.
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