The Living Trust Advisor

Postgame Review and Lessons Learned

You are now out of the Inheritance Arena. You established your Living Trust, lived with it, and died with it. Your lifetime of accumulations has been distributed to your children, grandchildren, charities, and other beneficiaries you have named in your Living Trust.

What happens now? Postgame review! This is when we play back the video of the game and learn from what went right . . . and what went wrong. Of course, since I have not had the pleasure of meeting you personally and getting to know your particular inheritance circumstances, it is impossible to review your game film to see how you did. Did your beneficiaries experience the smooth transfer of your Living Trust assets without diminishment from probate fees and estate taxes? Or did they engage in so much conflict that they had to resort to the televised court of Judge Joe Brown for resolution?

Since it is physically impossible for me to review your game film, I must resort to relaying the experiences I have had with various Living Trust scenarios from my 30 years of practicing in the area of inheritance planning. From the Q&A and the cautionary tales that are present in this cooling-down period, you may see yourself and be able to take away some valuable advice that you can incorporate into your Living Trust.

Your existence in the Living Trust world at all stages of the game is quite insular. You don’t know anything about your neighbor’s Living Trust. You probably don’t know much ...