July 23, 2014. To do a Trust proper, it needs to be funded, by which we mean placing your assets inside of the Trust. If your estate planner is doing right by you, he or she will be helping you with this for the property you currently own. Your attorney will also likely be preparing you to handle some funding on your own for assets you acquire at a later date. This being said, some property might be left out accidently. Or, you might want to leave some property outside of the estate. Examples of the latter are vehicles and joint checking accounts. You should be cautions with vehicles only for the reason that in an accident, an already litigious individual may become more so when they learn a trust owns the vehicles. For these sort, they get it in their head that you have deep pockets. On the other hand, with joint-accounts, it is usually not possible to get a spouse or significant other on an account owned by the Trust, and you may want the flexibility of the two of you having access to the same account. It is likely inevitable that some money will find its way to your probate estate.
So, how much property outside of a Trust is too much? Using Iowa law as a ballpark, below $25,000 is preferable because it allows assets to be transferred without probate. If that is not possible, or not desirable, you can go higher, but in no instance do you want to go above $100,000. Below this figure the estate can still make use of a shortened estate administration process.
For more information at estate planning and how much property you can keep out of your trust, contact the Goosmann Trust Law Counsel at info@goosmannlaw.com or call 712-226-4000.
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