Avoid Probate with a Living Trust

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Avoid Probate with a Living Trust

The primary purpose of a Living Trust is to protect your assets after your death and ensure your heirs receive them without hassle, unnecessary delays, or financial loss.

A trust does this by keeping your assets out of Probate Court. Rather than having a judge assign an attorney (who is paid out of your estate) to oversee the distribution of your assets, you assign this duty to someone you know and trust.

You may have heard horror stories about Probate. These are common.

If real estate, large assets, or operating companies are involved, we recommend a Living Trust be set up (along with other asset protection strategies that protect your assets throughout your lifetime).

We would put your personal assets into your living trust. This protects these assets from having to go through Probate Court. This can easily be updated as you accumulate or dispose of assets.

Problems with Probate

Probate takes your assets and gives it to the court system to distribute. It can cost a lot of money to your estate and thus your heirs.

When your assets go to Probate Court, it becomes part of the public record. This has disadvantages.

Maybe your son’s ex-wife sees it and her lawyer now wants more alimony. Maybe a relative was left out or got less than they felt they deserved and decides to sue.

By going through Probate, you are setting your heirs up for lawsuits. And in Probate, an attorney is hired by the court and paid out of your estate. This can get expensive, especially if the will is contested. The longer Probate goes the more the attorney is paid.

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    Advantages of a Living Trust

    Now, in a living trust, someone you trust is the Trustee when you pass. There is no public announcement, and the courts are not involved.

    If finding someone you can trust is a problem, and you are interested in a living trust, contact Torchlight Tax.

    A properly drafted trust agreement makes sure your instructions are adhered to. Also, the trust agreement is a PRIVATE DOCUMENT. You have given your instructions to the trustee, and he simply sits down and carries out your instructions. Not everybody gets to see it.

    It is not easy to file a lawsuit against a trust.

    A properly set-up trust has provisions in it to protect the interests of your chosen heirs. The idea of a living trust is to allow the trustee to handle your instructions with minimum fuss. Your estate is kept out of court, and there is no delay handling your assets.

    The trustee can pay the mortgage and utilities out of the bank account with no delay. He can handle any bills that need to be paid. If you have an active business, he can make sure the business is kept going and ensure that the successor is on the job and handling matters. If you have rental properties, he can make sure rents are collected and any needed repairs are done.

    You can put into the trust all Bank accounts, money market accounts, stocks, bonds, gold, cryptocurrency, etc.’There are other advantages of Living Trusts as well. You make life a lot simpler for your heirs.

    You can also use them to reward what you consider good conduct.

    You do not have to leave $100,000 to a nineteen year old grandson who might blow it partying.

    You can have the funds available for college expenses which the trustee can pay while the grandson is going to college.

    Torchlight Tax Can Help

    We have a highly professional team here that handles all aspects of Taxes, Accounting, and Asset Protection, and sets up and uses entities such as LLCs, Trusts and Corporations to save tax dollars and protect your assets.

    Would you like to protect your assets from probate court?

    Would you like to maximize your tax savings?

    Would you like to minimize asset risk?

    Would you like to pro-actively do tax-savings and asset protection planning?

    Then contact us for a free consultation.

    Call us at 1-877-758-7797 or 702-463-1818 or email us at info@TorchlightTax.com. We can transfer your call to a branch office near you or help you directly from our central office.

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    When doing current taxes, we often come across missed tax savings from prior years. When this happens, the Internal Revenue Service allows you to amend your taxes and lower your tax liability. Whether you or your prior tax preparer missed a W-2 or 1099, a revised 1099. large charitable donations, or made some other error, amending your tax return can help you recover the money you are rightfully owed. When we find this situation, we will advise you on potential savings and amend the previously filed tax return.

    Sometimes, there may be a situation where a tax return could be amended, but it is too late to receive any benefit. Or maybe you made an error that was missed by the IRS that would have increased your tax liability. In some cases, it is prudent to file an amended return. But if it is not necessary and will not save you any money or decrease your risk, we will tell you not to bother. It is silly to amend a return to no advantage which is too old for the IRS to audit. Some firms might file a bunch of unnecessary tax returns and charge a fee. Sometimes a taxpayer himself might increase his tax liability by filing an unnecessary amendment that increases his tax liability. We will not do this.

    Amending a tax return requires more professional acumen then doing it right in the first place. At Torchlight Tax, we do file the tax return correctly the first time. And we will happily amend your tax return, but only if it actually is to your benefit. If you think you might need to amend tax returns, contact Torchlight Tax for a free consultation.

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