ABA Family Legal Guide

Estate Planning

Trusts and Living Trusts

Mary is a widow, without children or any close relatives. She is no longer able to live alone in her home or to handle her finances. In her younger days, Mary loved to hike, and wants most of her estate to support organizations that protect the environment. And she wants to leave some of her assets to her close friend Maggie, who has been helping her as she's become more disabled.

Mary's lawyer advises her to establish a living trust and transfer her property and other assets to its trustee. She will move into an assisted-living center. The trustee will sell the home and invest the proceeds, along with the other assets, to provide for Mary's support during her lifetime. After she dies, the living trust will direct Mary's estate to Greenpeace and the Sierra Club, and to her friend Maggie. If Mary changes her mind about who should receive her estate, Mary can make a simple amendment to the trust by a written letter or a memo signed by her and delivered to the trustee.

This section covers trusts and living trusts, their advantages, their requirements, and your options among different types of trusts.

1. What is a trust?
2. When are trusts set up?

Subsections

1. Living Trusts
2. Other Kinds of Trusts
3. Setting Up and Maintaining a Trust