Protect Your Assets & Make the Transfer of Your Estate Easier
A living trust can provide greater control over your assets during your lifetime while creating a clear plan for how those assets should be managed if you become incapacitated and distributed after your death.
At Hoffman & Associates, our Atlanta living trust attorneys help individuals, families, business owners, executives, and high-net-worth clients determine whether a living trust should be part of their overall estate plan.
Our goal is not simply to prepare a trust document. We help clients create coordinated estate plans designed around their families, assets, businesses, tax considerations, and long-term objectives.
What Are the Benefits of a Living Trust?
A living trust can serve several important estate planning purposes. Depending on your circumstances, potential benefits may include:
- Avoiding probate for assets properly transferred to the trust
- Providing continuity in asset management
- Planning for incapacity
- Creating detailed instructions for beneficiaries
- Managing inheritances for children
- Providing greater privacy than probate administration
- Managing property located in multiple states
- Coordinating assets within a comprehensive estate plan
- Creating a more organized process for administering your estate
Whether these benefits are important to you depends on your family, assets, and estate planning goals.
Can a Living Trust Avoid Probate in Georgia?
One of the primary reasons people consider a living trust is the potential to avoid probate for certain assets.
Assets properly titled in a revocable living trust can generally be administered and distributed according to the terms of the trust rather than through the probate process.
However, creating the trust document alone is not enough.
Assets must be properly coordinated with the trust. Property that remains outside the trust may still be subject to probate unless it transfers through another method, such as a beneficiary designation or another form of ownership.
Our Atlanta living trust attorneys can help you determine which assets should be transferred to your trust and how the trust should coordinate with the rest of your estate plan.
What Assets Can Be Placed in a Living Trust?
Depending on your circumstances, various types of property may potentially be coordinated with a living trust, including:
- Real estate
- Bank accounts
- Brokerage and investment accounts
- Business interests
- Personal property
- Certain financial assets
Not every asset should necessarily be retitled into a living trust. Retirement accounts, life insurance, and other assets with beneficiary designations require special consideration.
An estate planning attorney can help determine how each asset should fit into your overall plan.
When Should You Update a Living Trust?
A living trust should evolve as your circumstances change.
You should consider reviewing your trust after significant events such as:
- Marriage or divorce
- Birth or adoption of a child
- Birth of grandchildren
- Death of a beneficiary or trustee
- Significant increase or decrease in assets
- Purchase or sale of real estate
- Starting, buying, or selling a business
- Receiving an inheritance
- Moving to another state
- Retirement
- Changes in family relationships
- Changes in estate or tax laws
Periodic reviews can also help identify assets that were acquired after the trust was originally created and may need to be incorporated into the plan.
