• Follow
  • Follow
  • Follow


9990 Coconut Road, Suite 342, Bonita Springs, FL 34135



(239) 498-6999

  • Home
  • Attorney Profile
  • Practice Areas
    • Estate & Trust Planning
    • Probate, Estate & Trust Administration
    • Asset / Creditor Protection Planning
    • Business Planning
    • Wealth Transfer Planning
  • Testimonials
  • About Us
  • Resources
    • Blog
    • Events
    • Newsletters
    • Video FAQS
  • Contact Us
Casey Law Group
  • Home
  • Attorney Profile
  • Practice Areas
    • Estate & Trust Planning
    • Probate, Estate & Trust Administration
    • Asset / Creditor Protection Planning
    • Business Planning
    • Wealth Transfer Planning
  • Testimonials
  • About Us
  • Resources
    • Blog
    • Events
    • Newsletters
    • Video FAQS
  • Contact Us

The Revocable Living Trust: Helping Clients, Growing Your Practice

Prevention Is the Greatest Cure
Your clients trust you with their financial future and the legacy they want to leave behind. They rely on you to anticipate challenges, foresee trouble, and take preventative measures. When it comes to a client’s financial wellbeing, it is up to the trusted advisor to know what problems are likely to arise and to have solutions ready to help avoid conflict in the family, waste of resources, and other common pitfalls.

One crucial tool to keep assets safe and to ensure they are distributed in the way your client wants is through the use of a revocable living trust.

What Is a Revocable Living Trust?
A revocable living trust (RLT), sometimes called a revocable trust or living trust, is an alternative to a will. It’s a document that instructs a trustee on how to manage the client’s assets during the client’s lifetime and how to manage or distribute the assets upon the client’s incapacity and death. Diverse assets such as life insurance proceeds or policies, real estate holdings (including the client’s personal residence), bank accounts, and investments can be managed with an RLT.

An RLT allows a client to name him or herself as the initial trustee and to name a successor trustee in the event that the client becomes incapacitated or dies. By being named trustee, the client retains full control and also retains the benefit of his or her assets.

In addition to serving as the trustee, the client has the ability to alter the trust as he or she sees fit (hence being called a revocable trust), to add or remove beneficiaries, and use the assets as he or she wishes. Because the assets in an RLT are still under the control of the client, he or she will pay taxes on any income within the trust accordingly.

RLTs Avoid Probate
One major benefit of using an RLT as an estate planning strategy is that it avoids probate. This is accomplished by ensuring that all assets that otherwise would have been in your client’s name at death are funded into the trust. Then, when the client dies, there are no assets in the name of the client and no need for a probate. The terms of the trust will dictate what happens to the assets, not a court or state law.

Probate can be a long and expensive process and can restrict beneficiaries’ access to assets from a few months up to several years. Estates whose assets span more than one state could end up going through probate in each state. Why put beneficiaries through this process when it can be avoided simply by creating an RLT?

Protecting Inheritances
Passing financial security on to the next generation is a popular goal for many clients. However, inheritances can be vulnerable to many life events and changes a beneficiary might experience. Assets can be spent too quickly, devalued, lost in a divorce, seized by creditors, or become vulnerable in a lawsuit.

A properly drafted RLT allows clients to put restrictions in place to ensure their hard-earned money continues to benefit the next generation. Whether it is the use of a spendthrift provision or no-contest clause, or merely establishing an age that a beneficiary has to attain before receiving any distribution, the client is in control.

Providing Privacy
If a client has a traditional will, the terms in the will become public record as soon as the probate is opened. With an RLT, by contrast, assets are distributed privately. Without court supervision, there is no need for the RLT to be filed with the probate court. In turn, the transactions involved in administering the trust are not entered into the public record and cannot be searched, thus providing privacy to both the client and the beneficiaries.

What Could Go Wrong?
Most clients have a clear idea as to how they want their estate to be divided, but without proper estate planning, a lot can go wrong. Lack of foresight in estate planning will always come to bear sooner or later. Let’s take a look at some common shortcuts and their consequences—and how an RLT can help avoid these headaches.

A client’s child is added directly to their bank account. This may seem like a straightforward way of designating a recipient for an asset, but what happens if the child incurs significant debt? The bank account will be seized by creditors, and the child will not see a penny. There is also the added risk that the creditor may decide to take the money as soon as the child is added to the account, despite the fact that the child never made any contributions to the account, and the client is still alive. The creditor will deem the child to be the owner of the account and can use those funds to satisfy the outstanding debt. By contrast, if the bank account is funded into an RLT, it can be protected from the beneficiary’s creditors during the client’s life and after their death.
A client leaves their home to their child through the use of a transfer-on-death (TOD) deed. The client intends for the child to receive a certain share of the estate by deeding them the home upon the client’s death. What happens if the home is sold before the client passes away? Instead of an equal share in the estate, the child will receive nothing. By funding all assets into an RLT and designating shares for each beneficiary to receive, you will not have to worry about individual assets. In this instance, if the home is an asset of the trust and is sold, the proceeds will be deposited into a bank account owned by the trust, so even if the child does not get the house, they can still get the value of the house as part of their share.
A client names a beneficiary directly in their life insurance policy. Again, in this case, there is no protection against the beneficiary’s creditors. And what happens if the policy premiums are not paid? If the policy lapses, there will be no asset for the beneficiary to inherit. This too can be avoided with the care and specificity of an RLT. As mentioned before, having the proceeds payable to the RLT means that the client can stipulate how the funds will be distributed to beneficiary instead of an outright distribution. Also, if the policy lapses, as a beneficiary of the trust, he or she will still receive a share of the overall trust assets.

Honoring the Client’s Wishes
As we have seen, any of these events could disrupt the client’s original intent of dividing assets as desired. An RLT is a much safer and simpler option. Instead of having to worry about how separate assets are titled and making sure beneficiary designations and account owners are updated every time the client changes his or her mind about who is to receive them, an RLT allows for one set of instructions that control everything.

With assets being held in a trust and distributed over a period of time, an RLT encourages the continued management of the estate by qualified financial advisors. If the assets are allowed to be distributed outright, it is highly likely that the beneficiaries will cash out.

Your clients depend on you to help them plan and make sound decisions about their financial health. Working together, we can help develop a comprehensive financial and estate plan that will help build financial stability for today and tomorrow. Do not hesitate to reach out for more information about how we can collaborate to best serve our clients.

Newsletter Archive


View All Newsletters
  • Advisor Focused Newsletter 50
  • Client Focused Newsletter 51

Services:

Estate & Trust Planning
Probate, Estate & Trust Administration
Asset/Creditor Protection Planning
Business Planning
Wealth Transfer Planning

Disclaimers:

Terms & Conditions
Privacy Policy

Follow Us:

  • Follow
  • Follow
  • Follow

Disclaimers:

Terms & Conditions
Privacy Policy

Services:

Estate & Trust Planning
Probate, Estate & Trust Administration
Asset/Creditor Protection Planning
Business Planning
Wealth Transfer Planning

Follow Us:

  • Follow
  • Follow
  • Follow

2025 Copyright Casey Law Group P.L. A Website Design by Ahrens Technologies | Kirkland’s Webdesign.

Accessibility by WAH
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Asset and Creditor Protection Planning
  • Asset Protection Law
  • Attorney Profile
  • Blog
  • Business
  • Business Formation Law
  • Business Owner Planning
  • Business Planning
  • Contact Us
  • Contact Us
  • Estate & Trust Planning
  • Estate Planning Law
  • Events
  • Home
  • Privacy Policy
  • Probate, Estate & Trust Administration
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Testimonials
  • Testing Video
  • Trust Administration
  • Video FAQs
  • Video Links
    • Are there other ways of leaving property to my beneficiaries other than through a will or a trust?
    • Are there things I can do to protect my existing business?
    • Can any attorney create a family wealth trust?
    • Can I leave my property to anyone I choose? 
    • Can I make provision in my will for my pets?
    • Can I specify that certain people, like a brother or sister, should never receive any of my property?
    • Can I transfer real estate into a family wealth trust?
    • Can I use my will to name a guardian to care for my young children and mage their property?
    • Can I use my will to name a guardian to care for young children and manage their property?
    • Can my power of attorney make or change my will?
    • Can trustees get help administrating trusts? 
    • Do I have to employ asset protection for all types of assets?
    • Do I need a financial power of attorney?
    • Do I need to name a trustee in my will?
    • Do we have to take account of minority shareholders’ interests and wishes in a family business?
    • Does a small business (subchapter S corporation give me the same protection as limited liability company (LLC))?
    • Does a will control all of my property?
    • Does all property have to go through probate when a person dies?
    • Does an executor (personal representative) get paid?
    • Does the person named in the will as executor (personal representative) have to serve?
    • How can a limited liability company provide me with asset protection?
    • How can an estate plan may things easier on my family after I die?
    • How can I leave specific items to particular people?
    • How can I make sure I will keep control of the family business if I get divorced?
    • How do I best protect my personal assets if I start a small business?
    • How do I get started with a succession plan?
    • How does a family wealth trust differ from a revocable living trust?
    • How does a revocable living trust avoid probate? 
    • How does trust administration differ from probate?
    • How is undue influence determined?
    • How long is a will valid?
    • How often should a succession plan be updated?
    • How often should my will be reviewed?
    • I want to start a small business with two partners. What is the best way to protect myself?
    • If I become incapacitated, will I need a durable power of attorney if I already have a living trust?
    • If I create a revocable living trusts, do I still need a will?
    • If I die owing debts, who pays my debts?
    • If I made a will, but lived in another state. Now I live in Florida. What should I do?
    • If I make a living trust, do I still need a will?
    • If there is a divorce in the family can we get shares back from an ex-spouse who is no longer a family member?
    • Is it possible that I may need more than one LLC?
    • Must I leave something to my spouse and children?
    • Should I avoid probate?
    • What are the benefits of a succession plan?
    • What are the signs of undue influence?
    • What are the uniform fraudulent transfer act (UFTA) and the uniform fraudulent convevance act (UFCA)?
    • What are trusts?
    • What benefits does a trust offer?
    • What does a guardian do?
    • What does a proper estate plan include?
    • What does if mean to fund a trust?
    • What does testate and intestate mean?
    • What happens if I become unable to care for myself? 
    • What happens if I die without a will?
    • What happens if you do not have a will or trust? 
    • What if become disabled and am no longer able to manage my affairs?
    • What is a bypass trusts?
    • What is a domestic asset protection trust?
    • What is a durable power of attorney?
    • What is a family wealth trust?
    • What is a fiduciary?
    • What is a health care power of attorney?
    • What is a health care proxy?
    • What is a living will?
    • What is a pour-over will?
    • What is a QTIP trust?
    • What is a registered agent?
    • What is a revocable trust?
    • What is a testamentary trust?
    • What is a testator and a testarix?
    • What is a trustee?
    • What is an A-B trust?
    • What is an executor (personal representative) and what does the executor do?
    • What is an irrevocable trust?
    • What is asset protection?
    • What is codicil?
    • What is estate planning?
    • What is incapacity or a lack of capacity?
    • What is included in my estate?
    • What is offshore planning?
    • What is personal residence trust?
    • What is piercing the corporate veil?
    • What is probate?
    • What is tenants by the entirety?
    • What is the difference between a will and a trust?
    • What is the difference between having a will and family wealth trust?
    • What is the difference between traditional estate planning and wealth planning?
    • What is trust administration?
    • What is wealth transfer planning?
    • What property does my will control?
    • What protection is available through a family limited partnership?
    • What will I still have control over my property if I have a living trust?
    • When does the trust administration process start?
    • When is the right time to begin estate planning for myself?
    • When is the right time to start succession planning?
    • When should an estate plan be reviewed? 
    • When should I review my existing will?
    • When should I start asset protection?
    • Who administers trusts?
    • Why do I have to be careful about fraudulent transfer rules?
    • Why should I make a living trust?
    • Will a family wealth trust avoid income taxes?
    • Would a living trust provide protection for my assets if I were sued?
  • Wealth Transfer Planning
  • Wealth Transfer Planning
  • Will and Trusts Law