Misconceptions about wills and trusts often creates confusion.
TCPalm recently discussed common misconceptions surrounding wills and trust in “Common misconceptions about wills and trusts.”
Among the misconceptions are:
- Having a will means that your estate does not have to go through probate. This is completely false. In most cases, wills have to be submitted to a probate court for administration.
- If your estate is not large enough to pay the estate tax, then you do not need to have a will or trust. This is another falsehood since there are many other reasons to have a will or trust. The most important is that if you do not, then all of your property will be distributed according to statutory rules instead of how you might have preferred it to be distributed.
- By putting your assets in a revocable trust, you lose the ability to have any control over the assets. This is not true. If you are the trustee of your trust and the trust is drafted properly, then you will still be able to do whatever you want with your assets during your lifetime.
- You have to file a separate tax return for your revocable trust. This is also not true. As long as your trust is properly drafted, a revocable trust will not be considered a separate legal entity during your lifetime and you will not need to file a separate tax return for it.
An estate planning attorney can guide you through the world of wills and trusts and to an estate plan that meets your particular circumstances.
Reference: TCPalm (Dec. 2, 2016) “Common misconceptions about wills and trusts.”
