I think I'm covered, right?

J

jojo0808

New Member
Jurisdiction
California
Hello everyone!
I have gone through Legal Zoom and created a Last Will and Testament, a POA and a living will.
I keep being told by people like my accountant and a few other people that I should have a living trust.
I have at the moment 200,000.00 in an investment firm with 2 beneficiaries sharing 50/50 and my mother as a contingent. I have an IRA with 5000.00 also provided with a beneficiary and two contingents. I have named a family member as a beneficiary on my pension and my social security, I have my body donated to science then cremated, organ donor authorization, a POD went to my bank today so my executor can grab that money to pay any bills.
I have scanned all these documents and have them on my computer and hard copies in a file that I told my executor where to find.
Will all the proof of beneficiaries and PODs, why do I need a trust?
I do not expect anyone to contest the will, all I have is clothes, a little art and some books and I have left beneficiaries for all those items. I'm thinking about gifting some of the art just so I qualify for the small estates category in probate. I'm single, don;t own property, lease my car... Why do I need a Living Trust when all these actions and forms have been filed and my executor, my sister and my room mate all have copies. I do have a phone appointment with an attorney from Legal Zoom to discuss a couple tax questions I have, but I really feel like I'm good to go! What do you think?
 
Your accountant must have a friend in the trust business that he wants to send business to and anybody else that you talk to probably read someplace that a trust is good to have but really have no clue.

If you owned real estate in CA a trust might be helpful to avoid your heir having to probate it.

But for everything else, I don't think you need one.

I'm in a similar situation, single with two heirs, my sister and my daughter. I own my home and my cars free and clear. Fortunately, I live in Arizona where things are a little more progressive than CA.

My home is on a beneficiary deed in favor of my sister so she automatically gets it (and everything in it). All of my accounts (retirement, savings, checking) have my sister and my daughter as beneficiaries. Even my cars have transfer on death documents, a recent development in Arizona. My sister is my executor and she knows where the will is and has a key to my house.

And I haven't paid an accountant to do my taxes since 1978. :D
 
adjusterjack said:
Your accountant must have a friend in the trust business that he wants to send business to and anybody else that you talk to probably read someplace that a trust is good to have but really have no clue.

If you owned real estate in CA a trust might be helpful to avoid your heir having to probate it.

But for everything else, I don't think you need one.

I'm in a similar situation, single with two heirs, my sister and my daughter. I own my home and my cars free and clear. Fortunately, I live in Arizona where things are a little more progressive than CA.

My home is on a beneficiary deed in favor of my sister so she automatically gets it (and everything in it). All of my accounts (retirement, savings, checking) have my sister and my daughter as beneficiaries. Even my cars have transfer on death documents, a recent development in Arizona. My sister is my executor and she knows where the will is and has a key to my house.

And I haven't paid an accountant to do my taxes since 1978. :D
Click to expand...
I was just typing up a page of notes to ask this attorney and it dawned on me that I do have a weird situation. I was adopted and I found my biological family back in 1990. My adopted mother died in 1994 and i have not seen nor heard from my adopted (legal) sisters in over 10 years. I want to leave my biological mother my social security but the actual form I downloaded from SS asks for "Name of Living Parent". My biological mother did not create my social security account. My adopted mother did. Am I going to have conflict there? WOuld it be better to have the executor collect my SS funds then give them to my biological mother? But if we do that... does it have to go through Probate? I have left both my adopted sisters 10.00 in my will so they can't contest the will and say I forgot about them. I don;t even know how my executor will find them to give them 10 bucks. Will she have to hire a private detective? I think they are both homeless.
 

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