Trust Attorney Las Vegas | Getting What You Need?

Hello, this is the trusted podcast. I’m your host, Blake Johnson. And today we are going to be talking about how often you should be reviewing your estate planning documents. Now that seems like that’d be a pretty quick topic, Trust Attorney Las Vegas but we want to go into more detail about this and what kind of things you need to be looking for. So let’s say you’ve got your estate planning done, you were proactive, you got all the documents done, you’ve got everything transferred into the trust, and um, you’re all set and ready to go. So are you set for life? Uh, the question is, are the answers no, you’re not. Because in a state plan, one of the basic parts of it is a living trust, meaning it’s a living document. It changes as needed. Um, you know, there’s gonna be some updates that need to be done to that.

So first thing we always recommend to our clients is at least yearly, you want to sit down and review your trust to make sure that you didn’t purchase any more assets that you did not correctly title in the name of the trust. And then make those changes to actually get it titled or named the beneficiary of the trust, the correct way. And um, then you want to make sure that that list of assets is updated in the trust as well. So with our clients, we update the list and you know, keep it nice and typed up, but you can do it yourself. We just want to have a current list because what happens more often than not is when, um, you know, someone passes away, the successor trustee comes to us and say, Trust Attorney Las Vegas I have no idea what they had, what am I supposed to do? And so we try to piece together what they had through the mail.

Um, but sometimes things are done. Uh, you get electronic statements and they don’t have access to your email. And so they don’t know if you have an accountant there and then it becomes unclaimed property, uh, if it’s not claimed within a certain period of time, depending on the state. And then to get it back, the heirs have to make a claim to the state’s unclaimed property and it can cause delays. Or in fact, it may not often, uh, never get that. There are billions and billions of dollars in states, unclaimed property funds that are just waiting there because somebody didn’t know that they were entitled to that money. So point is yearly, sit down, make sure all of your assets are listed out, and then most importantly, make sure those assets are titled in the trust because even if you have it on that list, that doesn’t make it in the trust.

So you could have, let’s say you opened a new investment account and you forgot to put in the trust name and you put it on the list, but you never transferred title and you never urgent never changed the beneficiary of that account. Guess what? That one is going through probate court to be able to get those assets to the right people. So two steps, make sure that your list is updated and to make sure it’s titled Correctly. Okay? That’s what we called funding the trust. Next thing you need to review. Um, we say probably every three to five years. Do you want to come and sit down with your attorney and review the document itself? One to make sure there’s been no major changes in law as far as state taxes or the asset side of things. Um, and then we also on the personal side, you know, who’s the person you named as your successor trustee still alive. Trust Attorney Las Vegas

Um, do you still like them? Do you still trust them? You know, do you want them handling your money? What about if you have minor kids? Is the person that you named still somebody you want? Um, you know, we had a client that um, you know, named somebody who thought it was a good choice at the beginning and then they, um, ended up having, um, their, uh, their person move in with them. They realized how that they lived their life and they did not want those people raising their kids. So it made a big change in that. So they had to update their documents. Um, other things that we’re going to look at is what about your kids? Let’s say? Um, you know, they’ve grown up a little bit and so you know, you know how they’re going to act with money. Maybe you want to reduce the age, but when they get it or you’ve found out they’re bad with money and you want to increase that age or you want to make sure it’s spread out over a longer period of time so that distribution is different.

Um, or let’s say one of the beneficiaries dies, you know, how are we going to deal with that? Has Your financial situation changed drastically? That’s going to affect whether we have to worry about estate taxes or do we want to give anything to charity? So it’s an ongoing thing. Um, that’s why it is a living trust. It’s something that we, we massage, we deal with it on an ongoing basis. And that’s the beauty of it is that you can update it Trust Attorney Las Vegas. You don’t have to decide right now how it’s going to act the rest of your life Trust Attorney Las Vegas. We can always update and change those documents to make sure that it’s the right thing for you. Um, and then the other time you should review stuff is if you have a life changing event. So, um, you know, death of a spouse, uh, we need to do some trust administration side of things to get their name off the, the documents.

Um, you know, add, adding an additional kid if you didn’t put them in there and didn’t account for any after born children, you know, we want to make sure they’re included in as beneficiaries. Um, you know, major health risks. Do we need to do planning for Medicaid so you don’t deplete all of your assets. Um, those are all things that can lead to needing to sit down and review your, uh, your estate planning documents. So the big ones being life changing events, um, changes in who, uh, how your kids are beneficiaries are acting changes in, uh, how you trust or dealing with your trustee. Um, and then you know, those. And then, um, you want to worry about, um, changes in your financial situation for a state tax planning. And then, um, you know, anything else that makes you think Trust Attorney Las Vegas, oh, I wonder if this affects this. You know, call up your estate planning attorney, they’re happy to talk with you. Uh, at least the good ones are, and talk to you about the situation and see if there is any additional documents that need to be done. So, um, hopefully that helps you out and, you know, keep your trust updated. Don’t just wait around until you know it’s too late to make those changes. It just becomes more problematic down the road. So thank you for listening and have a great day.