Most people creating an estate plan in Florida will utilize a revocable living trust as a way to manage and control their property. As with all trusts, a revocable living trust requires you to create a new legal entity that can own property. After creating the trust, you will then go through the process of transferring all of your personal property into the trust’s name.
When many people hear about this last part of the trust creation process, they balk. After all, won’t transferring your property to a trust mean that you lose control over it? Why would you want to create something that results in you no longer being in control of your personal property?
To help alleviate some of these fears, let’s take a closer look at how a living trust in Port Saint Lucie Florida works and why it actually improves your ability to control your property.
Benefits of a Living Trust in Port Saint Lucie Florida
A living trust allows you important benefits that you otherwise wouldn’t normally have. When you create a living trust and transfer your property to it, that trust is something that won’t go on even after you die. Because the trust owns the property, this means that the property won’t have to go before Florida probate court in order for others to take possession of it. Also, because the trust property transfers outside of probate, this process will remain private.
Asset Control
Creating a living trust will require you to name a trustee who will manage your trust property. The trustee will have the duty to take care of the property on behalf of the beneficiaries who get to use or benefit from it.
The naming of a trustee is what causes many people to hesitate when creating a living trust. After all, if the trustee has to manage the property, that effectively means the trustee has control over it.
While this is technically true, there is one significant aspect most people don’t consider. When you name a trustee of your living trust, you usually choose yourself to serve in that role. This effectively means that even though the living trust owns the property and the trustee manages it, you maintain control over the property at all times because you are both the trustee and the beneficiary.
Additional Control
Revocable living trusts also allow you to exert control over your property should you become incapacitated. Much in the same way you can appoint an agent through a power of attorney who will manage a property should you become incapacitated, you can also appoint a successor trustee who will manage trust property in the same situation. This means that, should you become incapacitated, the successor trustee can step in immediately and begin managing your property until you are able to once again do-it-yourself.
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