What are some of the benefits of forming an Illinois trust? Well, here I’m going to limit it specifically to revocable living trusts or RLTs.
The revocable living trust has some benefits in that the person putting their property into the trust upon their passing, first and foremost avoids probate. Here in Illinois, when somebody passes with a will or without a will, their state has to go through probate. This is a yearlong at minimum process to get accomplished. In essence, what it does is it forces the family members, be it the children, surviving spouse, sometimes even brothers or sisters, to go through a long and drawn out court process that they wouldn’t have to otherwise if they had had a trust in place.
Under a trust, we avoid probate because the items are transferred into the trust. The trust also tells the trustees how those items can then be taken out of the trust at a later point. It’s basically a contract that says, you as the grantor have put these items into the trust, so now your trustees upon your passing can get them out, but only if they follow the rules that you put in place.
One of the other benefits of the trust is, well, yes, it avoids probate, but the side benefit to that is that it’s confidential. Your trust doesn’t get filed anywhere, it’s not part of the public record, and if you don’t have to open a probate, nobody has to get into your business. Whereas with a will-based estate plan, the will needs to get filed with the courts before a probate can be opened, so all of your wishes, all of your estate planning are out there for the public to see.
If you have any more questions about living trusts, trusts in general, or just need an estate plan set up, make sure to call me today. Thank you.