Why would you put your home in a Trust? Do you know how it works? Do you include the kids?
As Sarah mentioned below, it helps bypass probate so your estate can be settled much quicker. I have heard that it can be a long process so it is more to help your beneficiaries.
A trust would allocate all your assets, not just your house. By default this includes if, when, and how much your kids receive (at your specific direction). If you mean should you include who gets your kids if you die, yes, this should also be included in a trust.
The reason a trust is preferable to a will is to by pass court proceedings. Where as a will still has to go through the court process, a trust stands as is. Think of a trust as a will, only its ready to go and has proven to hold up to the court in advance. A trust should include all your assets including your house, not just your house. A trust states who gets what in case one or both of you and your spouse dies, who will run your estate if you are incapacitated, who will make medical decisions on your behalf, who gets you children if both parents die, at what age your children inherit your assets, and who manages the money before the time that your children inherit it, and any other particulars you want to work out in case of death, or incapacitation.
A trust is tool often used to by-pass the probate process and to set up a certain amount of control over assets even after death. There are advantages and disadvantages depending on where you are living and what you are trying to accomplish. Here in Texas the probate process is fairly quick and painless , we do not have our home in a trust. Arkansas, on the other hand, has fees that can consume nearly 20% of the estate, making trusts a must. You should talk with a lawyer about what your goals are and what the costs of the trust will be.
"Like a Will, a Living Trust is a legal document that provides for the management and distribution of your assets after you pass away. However, a Living Trust has certain advantages when compared to a Will. A Living Trust allows for the immediate transfer of assets after death without court interference. It also allows for the management of your affairs in case of incapacity, without the need for a guardianship or conservatorship process. With a properly funded Living Trust, there is no need to undergo a potentially expensive and time-consuming public probate process. In short, a well-thought out estate plan using a Living Trust can provide your loved ones with the ability to administer your estate privately, with more flexibility and in an efficient and low-cost manner."
http://skvarnalaw.net/lawyer/Upland_Glendora_CA_fq388.htm
Yes, we have a trust. Basically you create a trust, for example "The Viola Family Trust". You add people to the the trust - you, your husband and anyone else you want to have ownership. You put everything you own - houses, cars, etc - in the name of the trust. If one of you dies, the other members automatically own everything. There is no will or inheritance, and no courts to get involved, etc. It is already theirs. You can add many legal documents to the trust - who you want to raise your children in the event of both parents death, who has the right to make medical decisions on your behalf if you're unable, what sort of end-of-life choices you'd want made, etc. It is a very valuable document.
My house is. I had my attorney set it up. In addition to a will, durable power of atty, etc. My kids are the beneficiaries.
Yes, we put our home in our trust; your lawyer can set it up for you. And of course, you make your spouse and children the beneficiaries of the trust.
Like others have said, a Living Trust can be set up which will basically state how assets, such as investments, a retirement fund, your home, etc. will be distributed after you pass away, without having to go through a court process like probate. My husband and I have a trust established, where basically everything goes to the surviving spouse if only 1 of us dies. If the other spouse also passes, it states that each of the kids (his 2 sons and our daughter) get a certain percentage of the assets, starting at age 18. It also states how MUCH of their assets they get at what ages - we would never allow any of them to get 100% of everything at age 18 or 21 or whatever. Until then, the assets are under control of an executor trustee, which is a person of your choosing that is in charge of making sure everything happens according to your wishes after you are gone. The beneficiaries can be whomever you choose. A home can be included in that, since if you both pass away, it would be up to the executor trustee to have the home sold, and then the money from the sale (after the mortgage is paid off, if need be) to be put into the trust. It also includes guardianship for our daughter if something were to happen to both of us before she turned 18 - otherwise she could end up in foster care temporarily until the court decided where she was going, and then it could end up being with a family member that we would not want her with (it also prevents people from fighting over who gets custody). We can change anything at anytime - so if for example, for some reason, we wanted one of the kids to get a different percentage of the inheritance (or none at all), we can make that happen.
My parents had a trust set up for us and when my dad passed away in 2004, and then my mother in 2010, basically everything went to my brother and I, 50/50. Some things like life insurance got paid out right away. As for their investments, IRAs, etc., we each get 25% of it transferred into our name, in our own account, every 5 years, starting at age 35 until we are age 50 - then we each have 100% of our inheritance. You can set it up however you want and the executor trustee that you choose (my mother chose one my cousins and we chose another one of our cousins) is in charge of making that happen. When my mom passed away, we had to sell her condo, and the money went into the trust and got invested into one of the retirement accounts (it was already paid for 100% so no money was owed on a mortgage).
Basically what you would need to do is meet with an estate planning attorney - they can walk you through it, discuss your different options and explain how everything works. It wasn't difficult, just my husband and I had to decide how we wanted things written and planned out, who was getting what and when, and give the attorney the information they needed on what our assets actually where, the investment company they were with, etc.
