Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Pourover Trusts and Living Wills

Many, though not enough people have wills and living wills. The basic building blocks that make sure your assets go to the person you choose and not that second cousin that you never really liked. A pourover will is the next logical step, but relatively few people know they exist.

A pourover will takes your assets at death and funnels them into a trust for disbursement. This is an invaluable tool because you might get an inheritance or have assets that didn't make it into your will before you died or weren't retitled in the name of the trust. These can be transferred at your death to the pourover and distributed as you see fit. What happens if you don't make a pourover will? Well, the assets will pass based on the intestate laws of your state so your assets will be divvied up based on a statute some old guy with grey hair made up. Pourover wills are generally short compared to most legal documents (around 5 pgs). It might cost an extra couple hundred dollars now, but will save you from lawyers fighting over your estate or getting a cut of the probate fees which add up fast. Generally they are pretty standard documents and well worth the extra money.

For other estate planning tips head over to deathandtaxesblog.com he's a Chicago estate planning attorney who writes very easy to understand articles on complex topics.