Pour-Over Wills in Massachusetts
When creating and transferring assets into a trust, you may forget to move some assets into the trust at the time. You may also acquire new assets later that you forget or don’t have time to place in the trust before passing away. To ensure that all your assets reach the intended beneficiaries and avoid probate, secure your assets with a pour-over will.
For help creating, managing, funding, and placing assets into a trust during estate planning, turn to our knowledgeable team at Jordan & White, LLC. We proudly serve the North Shore of Massachusetts. Call us today to schedule your initial consultation at 978-744-2811.
How Does a Pour-Over Will Ensure That Assets Avoid Probate?
When you establish a living trust, the assets in the trust avoid probate upon your death. Also called a “testamentary trust,” a pour-over will directs the executor of the will to ensure that assets not already in the trust get transferred into the trust. By transferring assets into your trust upon your death, your assets will:
- Avoid probate
- Remain private from the public record (a will enters the public record in probate court)
- Avoid estate taxes
The trust’s beneficiaries can then receive their inheritance as soon as the trustee can collect the appropriate documentation, find the beneficiaries, and sign the correct assets into each beneficiary’s name.
An experienced estate planning attorney can help you navigate the complex nature of your trust and pour-over will options to determine the best solution for you and your intended beneficiaries.
What Is a Revocable Living Trust?
A revocable living trust is a trust in which you are both the grantor and the trustee. You can manage the trust assets during your lifetime, transferring assets into or out of the trust as you see fit.
You also must name a successor trustee to manage and administer the trust after you pass away. This person may be the same person as your pour-over will executor. Your successor trustee will:
- Use trust assets to pay any final expenses, debts, or taxes you owed
- Notify the appropriate financial institutions, insurance companies, and beneficiaries of your passing
- Administer the trust to ensure that your assets go to your intended beneficiaries.
A revocable living trust becomes an irrevocable trust at the time of your death, meaning the trustee cannot make any changes to the trust except by the instructions left in your pour-over will. The pour-over will ensures that all assets avoid probate so that the successor trustee can distribute those assets reasonably according to the instructions left in the trust agreement.
Contact a Trust Attorney at Jordan & White, LLC, to Create a Trust and Pour-Over Will
Trusts are essential to estate planning to ensure that your beneficiaries receive their inheritances according to your wishes. Without a pour-over will, some of your assets may be subject to the probate process, complicating the process of your intended beneficiaries receiving their inheritance.
Call us today at Jordan & White, LLC, at 978-744-2811, or contact us online to schedule your initial consultation regarding a living trust and pour-over will.
