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Wills Estates And Trust Resources

Do Living Trusts Work For Everyone?
According to the National Consumer Law Center, senior citizens are bombarded with advertisements, phone calls and door-to-door salespeople insisting that living trusts work best for everyone. For some, a living trust can be a useful estate planning tool. For others, buying a living trust can be a waste of limited resources.

Is A Living Trust Only For The Wealthy Then?
Anyone can create a lifetime trust. However, it is probably most valuable as an estate-planning tool by middle and upper income people 55 and older. In this respect, it is most valuable as a means of avoiding probate.

For low-income senior citizens, however, there may be less costly alternatives to consider. One example would be property held in joint tenancy with a right of survivorship, where property passes after death to surviving joint tenants. This does not necessarily mean you should place your property in joint tenancy. It is simply an option available to you and to be considered.

Also, most small estates -- $20,000 and under in New York -- are administered outside of probate. So the property of low-income seniors will be distributed through these procedures and not through probate.

What Are "Living Trust Mills"?
Generally speaking, "living trust mill" is term often used to describe an unscrupulous company that engages in questionable sales tactics. Many living trust mills advertise through the mail, door-to-door, or by sponsoring special seminars. This does not mean that everyone who engages in these activities is unscrupulous, but you should take additional steps to ensure that you are dealing with a reputable firm.

Always ask for credentials. For example, if you are referred to or working with an attorney, ask about membership in the New York State Bar Association and affiliation with such groups as the Trusts and Estates Law Section, the Elder Law Section, and the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys.

Are There Other Tactics I Should Watch Out For?
The National Consumer Law Center lists other questionable sales tactics as including: 1. Companies that use names that sound a lot like the names of legitimate non-profit organizations. This is usually a marketing ploy to confuse consumers. 2. Companies that use the living trust as an excuse to find out more information about a consumer's assets, and then try to sell additional products such as annuities or life insurance. 3. Companies that sell "self-help living trust kits."

What Is Wrong With A Self-Help Kit?
Most seniors do not have the knowledge nor are they given the guidance to properly execute the forms or fund the trust. According to the New York State Attorney General's Office, after having spent large sums of money and being assured that they would receive free legal assistance, the seniors are then told for the first time -- at the point they receive their living trust documents -- to consult with their own attorneys.

In the end, these consumers are left thousands of dollars poorer and with no effective estate plan. Even worse, the absence of an effective estate plan may not become apparent until after the victims of the scam have died, when the harm has become irreparable.

Contact our Wills Estates And Trust attorneys for your questions about wills legal options