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Just drew up our will and Trust leaving everything to our two children.
Our investments are in Fidelity (IRA, taxable accounts) which has our children as beneficiaries. Same with Chase checking and savings.
My question has to do with putting these accounts in the Trust. Would it be easier for our adult children to transfer these accounts without putting them in the Trust? I have also heard that there are tax implications when investment accounts (IRA) when put in a Trust.
Well, if you don’t mind paying probate fees and lengthening the time it takes for the estate to be disbursed then by all means, go with a will instead of a trust.
As others implied there are VERY FEW families that need the complication.
If YOU do... the qualified attorney who drew up the papers should have the answers.
we pulled our accounts from vanguard when they went in to the trust business , dropped beneficiaries on joint accounts and tried to tell us we should use a trust .
nonsense , fidelity and chase have no problems with using joint accounts and having beneficiaries listed .. vanguard told us we have to split the accounts in to 2 single accounts to list beneficiaries going forward , or use a trust ,. our answer was BYE .
My parents had a living trust. Mom had dementia by the time dad died, and had to be put into assisted living. The trust made it possible for me to become successor trustee and handle the estate's investments much the way dad did. Had I been executor under probate, I would have had to move the money into conservative investments that would not have produced the income needed to support mom.
that does not make a whole lot of sense as far as the difference in investing . one thing should have nothing to do with the other. this seems like nothing power of attorney for your mom could not have dealt with if she was still alive , trust or no trust .
you even have to be careful with living trusts when trying to avoid probate. a home is a protected asset in the eyes of medicaid only when held in personal name , not when in the name of a trust .
while the house avoids probate it now becomes a countable asset dollar wise and has to be sold , the money spent on care just to qualify for medicaid if needed .
trying to get it out of the trust back in to personal name can qualify under look back as a transfer of assets .
so see a estate/elder law attorney and do not just assume you need a trust because it merely avoids probate . . you may have nothing that needs probate if it has beneficiaries and probate may not be a bad thing if you are doing medicaid planning .
trusts have been the source of more trouble from defective wording , missing sentences and trouble for family members with the executor then you can imagine .
there is a discussion going on right now about executor issues .
they do but the basics apply like beneficiaries do not get probated and a home in a trust loses it's ability to be protected is pretty much true in almost all states if not all states but it does not hurt to check .
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