Estate Planning

Basic Advice: Set Up a Living Trust

By Jennifer Sawday

Suze Orman, from O (Oprah) Magazine, strongly advises her readers to set up living trusts. Here is what she has to say:

In What to Do When a Family Members Abuses an Inheritance in this month's O Magazine and featured on the website, she strongly advises setting up a trust to prevent someone from taking wayward control of your estate. Read the article to find the facts, but her solution is the same "mak[e] sure they have a revocable living trust with an incapacity clause."

In Leaving a Legacy on the O Magazine website, she repeats her standard advice by saying "we've covered this before, but it bears repeating: Create a living revocable trust, and make that trust the beneficiary of all your sizable assets (including your home)..."

In Why Gift Can Be Costly on the O Magazine website, she says it again -- set up a living trust and clearly explains how cost basis works and repeats her advice about setting up a trust even in gifting situations. In fact, she says, "[s]o if they're intent on giving a gift, make it cash. For appreciable assets such as stocks or real estate, it's better to make the gift an inheritance through a revocable trust."

Contact your own estate planning attorney for more information.

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Estate Planning, Probate and Trusts involve complex areas of law. Individual circumstances must be considered before any advice can be given.  The general information above is not to be construed as legal advice, which can only be given after consideration of the unique facts of each matter. Please seek the advice or counsel of your attorney, financial advisor or CPA as it may be appropriate.

Full post as published by Estate Planning Practice Blog on August 19, 2008 (boomark / email).