Revocable Living Trust Lawyers In Gainesville, Georgia

A revocable living trust can give you greater control over your property during your lifetime and provide a plan for managing and distributing those assets later. When properly funded, a trust can help keep assets out of probate, provide greater privacy and allow someone you choose to manage trust property if you become incapacitated. It is not, however, the right solution for every estate-planning goal.

At Hunt & Taylor Law Group, LLC, we help individuals and families in Gainesville, Hall County and throughout Georgia create practical estate plans around their circumstances. Founded in 2017, we combine a welcoming approach with substantial experience: our two partners each have more than 35 years of legal experience. Whether you are planning for a growing family, preparing for the future or managing property and business interests, we can help you address your current needs and adapt your plan as circumstances change.

Revocable Living Trust Planning For Georgia Families

A trust may be worth considering if you are building an estate plan for a growing family, preparing for incapacity, managing significant property or business interests, or planning how your assets will pass to children and other beneficiaries.

We can help you determine whether a revocable living trust fits your goals and how it can work with the rest of your estate plan. Depending on your circumstances, a trust may help you:

• Keep properly funded assets out of probate after your death.
• Maintain greater privacy than a public probate proceeding may provide.
• Establish a plan for managing trust property if you become incapacitated.
• Set terms for how and when beneficiaries receive trust assets.

A revocable living trust is not a solution for every estate-planning concern. By itself, it does not protect your assets from creditors or reduce estate taxes.

Funding And Managing Your Revocable Living Trust

Creating the trust document is only part of the process. We can help coordinate ownership of your assets with the trust so your estate plan works as intended.

Depending on your circumstances, this may involve:

• Recording the appropriate Georgia deed to transfer real estate to the trust.
• Retitling bank and brokerage accounts.
• Assigning limited liability company (LLC) or closely held business interests when appropriate.
• Reviewing beneficiary designations on financial accounts and insurance policies.

Assets left outside the trust may not receive the same probate-avoidance treatment as properly funded trust assets. Identifying these potential “orphaned” assets is an important part of trust planning.

Coordinating Your Trust With Georgia Probate

A properly funded revocable living trust can help keep trust assets out of probate. Georgia probate may proceed through common form or solemn form and can involve court filings, notice to interested parties and year’s support claims. Probate also creates a public court record.

Assets properly held in a revocable trust generally can pass through trust administration instead. A successor trustee can manage and distribute those assets without the same court-supervised process. Depending on the estate, this may offer greater privacy and reduce the time and expense associated with administration.

Creating a trust does not automatically avoid probate. The assets must be properly transferred to the trust or otherwise coordinated with the estate plan.

Coordinating Real Estate And Business Interests

Your home and other property require careful attention when you establish a trust. For a primary residence, we can help you consider the county homestead tax exemption, mortgage lender requirements and insurance. Transferring real estate also requires attention to the appropriate Georgia deed and any applicable trust endorsements.

Other real estate may also need to be transferred or coordinated with the trust. If you own an LLC or closely held business, we can help address how those interests fit into your estate plan, including management, control and eventual distribution.

Building A Complete Estate Plan Around Your Trust

A revocable living trust works best when it fits into a complete estate plan. We can help coordinate your trust with the other documents and arrangements that determine how your property and family will be cared for.

Depending on your circumstances, your estate plan may need to address:

• Your will: A pour-over will can direct assets that remain outside the trust into it after your death. If you have minor children, your will can also nominate a guardian; a trust alone cannot create that guardianship.
• Your family: Married couples may need separate or joint trusts. Blended families may need tailored provisions that provide for a surviving spouse while preserving an inheritance for children from a prior relationship or stepchildren.
• Retirement accounts and life insurance: Beneficiary designations can determine how these assets pass to your loved ones. Depending on your circumstances, an individual or trust may be an appropriate beneficiary. SECURE Act rules can also affect payout periods for inherited retirement accounts.
• Beneficiaries who need additional support: A subtrust may provide a structured way to manage an inheritance for a minor or a beneficiary with a disability.

We can help you bring these pieces together so your estate plan reflects your family, your assets and your wishes. As those circumstances change, we can also help you review and update the plan.

Selecting And Guiding Your Successor Trustee

Choosing a successor trustee is an important part of trust planning. We can help you consider who should take on this responsibility and how the trust should guide that person or institution.

A successor trustee has fiduciary responsibilities to manage the trust according to its terms and in the interests of its beneficiaries. Those responsibilities may include managing and investing trust assets prudently, maintaining accurate records, providing required notices, making appropriate distributions and administering the trust after incapacity or death.

With proper planning, a successor trustee can carry out these responsibilities without routine court supervision. Hunt & Taylor Law Group, LLC, can help you select an appropriate successor and establish clear instructions for carrying out your wishes.

Build An Estate Plan That Can Adapt With You

Your estate plan should reflect your life today while allowing you to respond when circumstances change. Marriage, children, new property, a growing business or changes within your family can all affect your plan.

At Hunt & Taylor Law Group, LLC, we help clients establish and coordinate revocable living trusts as part of practical, comprehensive estate plans. We can also help you revisit your plan as your legal needs evolve.

Call 770-999-0272 or contact us online to schedule a consultation. A thoughtful trust is more than a legal document. It is a way to put a workable plan behind the people, property and priorities you want to protect.