I think this is a fairly simple one. Widower needs an irrevocable trust
to put house in for eventual sale. 3 children as beneficiaries (one of them as trustee). No other assets other than house (paid for) need to go in. My hope is that this is a fairly straightforward version of such a trust. Does anyone have experience here? And perhaps an educated guess on what one would pay?
thank you!
We used a trust and estate attorney. Don't use some other specialty, just do it correctly.
We're in California.
Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I'm wondering if you're acting in an individual, voluntary, or paid capacity. Is this individual one of your parents?
As to this post, who made the determination that the widower needs an IT and not an LT? If one of the children is already a Trustee, that infers there's a trust in existence. Is this so?
If there's only one asset, and no other income, what benefit arises from an IT as opposed to an LT?
Once established, what would be needed is to retitle the home into the name of the trust, identifying who the Settlor, Trustee and Successor Trustee is/are. A PourOver Will used to accompany an LT; I don't know if this is still the practice.
In terms of price, it depends on the complexity of the Trust, the transfers, ancillary documents (such as a Bill of Sale transferring other miscellaneous personal possessions), and especially the geographic location and the size and experience of the firm.
Since you haven't provided a location, it's impossible to guess what the cost would be. You really have to identify potential firms to handle this, interview them and provide a list of what the Widower wants, as well as what your role is.
And, w/o intent to challenge anyone else's advice, anyone who thinks trust preparation is easy or can be done through online forms, or books, doesn't really have a concept of how complex trusts can be.
Do you have any idea how to update yourself on trust law? Have you ever worked for law firms with estate planning practices?
If you disagree, download the IRA Form 1041, Instruction for Trusts, and try reading through it. Even with only a house as an asset, there are a lot of complicating factors to understand.
In addition, why should this individual pay to have a VA application completed when one of the service organizations will do it for free? This would be money spent needlessly.
Thank you.
We went with the certified elder law attorney thinking we would spend more to do it right and set up a relationship with the right type of attorney in case there are future elder law issues. If we had to do it again, we would go with the $1500 personal injury lawyer.
VA pension application when he qualifies for it. So, I wasn't really too shocked at the price. I do like the lawyer, but just wanted to have some reference for what people pay. Thank you.
VERY basic and no frills. Named our POA's and executrix and made that legal. As things change, we'll go back and do addendums, but so far, it's just peace of mind.
These "how to" books will explain the house needs to be "in" the trust, in other words he'll need a QuitClaim deed transferring the house from his name to the trust.
Side note: If the intent is to transfer the house after he passes to be quickly sold, then an easier method may be to get with the city/county government and ask about a Transfer on Death deed. With a death certificate, the property will transfer to the beneficiaries listed. Easy, peasy.
You can buy or go to the library and borrow software from those popular tax software people that will generate trust paperwork for you. It's exactly like the tax preparation process where it asks you questions. Once the paperwork is made, you'll have to walk it through the signing and recording process.
But as you said, in this case with only a house a TOD would be much cheaper and easier.