Janz Hobbs
New Member
- Jurisdiction
- Texas
Background:
Married, no children, no heirs. Ages 50 and 59.
We are leaving our estate to four charities, none of whom have been notified they are beneficiaries.
Estate currently valued under $2 million.
All of our accounts and assets are jointly owned, and we are each other's beneficiaries.
We have a revocable living trust set up, it is currently unfunded, but planned on putting house back in after refinance. We also have pour-over wills.
Two years ago we had our trust amended and restated, and the attorney named it incorrectly. They've offered to fix it, and we also want to change our executor again.
Our Trust contains a Surviving Grantor's Trust and a Marital Trust. I've recently been told these are not commonly found in living trusts, are not needed, and only present complications for the surviving grantor.
Now we are questioning if we even need a trust based on the size of our estate and having no heirs. (FYI, it also includes a pet trust to take care of our pets after we're gone.)
We've spent over $5k making changes to this document and don't want to spend more if it's unnecessary.
Questions:
What are the benefits of a trust for a married couple in our position? Privacy? Sheltering assets from potential lawsuits?
Do we need to bother with this trust?
Do we need to remove the Surviving Grantor's and Marital Trusts within the living trust?
We've gotten so much conflicting information, I'm just trying to figure this out and not go broke doing so.
Thanks very much!
Married, no children, no heirs. Ages 50 and 59.
We are leaving our estate to four charities, none of whom have been notified they are beneficiaries.
Estate currently valued under $2 million.
All of our accounts and assets are jointly owned, and we are each other's beneficiaries.
We have a revocable living trust set up, it is currently unfunded, but planned on putting house back in after refinance. We also have pour-over wills.
Two years ago we had our trust amended and restated, and the attorney named it incorrectly. They've offered to fix it, and we also want to change our executor again.
Our Trust contains a Surviving Grantor's Trust and a Marital Trust. I've recently been told these are not commonly found in living trusts, are not needed, and only present complications for the surviving grantor.
Now we are questioning if we even need a trust based on the size of our estate and having no heirs. (FYI, it also includes a pet trust to take care of our pets after we're gone.)
We've spent over $5k making changes to this document and don't want to spend more if it's unnecessary.
Questions:
What are the benefits of a trust for a married couple in our position? Privacy? Sheltering assets from potential lawsuits?
Do we need to bother with this trust?
Do we need to remove the Surviving Grantor's and Marital Trusts within the living trust?
We've gotten so much conflicting information, I'm just trying to figure this out and not go broke doing so.
Thanks very much!