Centara Connection

Who Needs a Revocable Living Trust

Brittany Oates, Estate Planning Attorney

A living trust can be the most important part of your estate plan and can contain provisions which can postpone, reduce or even eliminate estate taxes. It provides for the private management of your assets when you are unable to act as trustee yourself. When you are incapacitated, your trustee can assume responsibility for your assets and manage them for your benefit without court intervention. At your death, the trustee acts much as an executor would, gathering your assets, paying debts and taxes, and distributing your assets pursuant to your wishes.

If you become incapacitated, whomever you have named as your successor trustee will assume the responsibility for managing your trust assets. Assets held outside of your trust must be handled by your “Attorney in Fact,” whom you have named in your financial power of attorney. How this is accomplished may depend on whether the assets are your separate or community property. If you are married, assets earned by either you or your spouse while married and while a resident of California are community property. On the other hand, a married individual may own separate property as a result of assets owned prior to marriage or received by gift or inheritance during marriage.
If you do not have a financial power of attorney, community property may be managed by your spouse or registered domestic partner. If you own separate property or are unmarried, assets held in your name alone at the time of your incapacity are subject to the jurisdiction of the probate court in a proceeding called a conservatorship. The probate court will then determine that you are substantially unable to manage your own financial resources or resist fraud or undue influence, and names a person to assume responsibility for the management of your assets (a "conservator").

Assets held in your living trust at your death can be managed by the trustee of your trust and distributed in accordance with your directions. The trustee is also accountable to your beneficiaries for the trust assets held for their benefit. The trust is not under the direct management of the probate court; therefore, the value and the nature of your assets and the identity of your beneficiaries do not become a public record.

Centara Legal Group, APC
8880 Rio San Diego Drive, Suite 450
San Diego, CA 92108
(619) 400-1900
www.centaralegal.com
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