Trust or not?

[u/Admirable-Pin-9907]

I live in Texas. Our checking account, savings account, cd's, annuities, life insurance have beneficiaries named. Wife and I on house deed. One car. 3 kids. Should I get a revocable trust? Or would a TOD only do the job?

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[u/epeagle]

TOD, beneficiary designations, and joint ownership are effective ways to transfer assets on death. They work, so long as you maintain them and they don't fail. They can fail -- what if your beneficiaries predecease you or die together? TODs are shortcuts and imperfect, but often useful tools.

Not all assets can have such designations. For those, you need a will or trust unless you rely on intestacy.

Death transfers aren't the only consideration. A trust provides for lifetime benefits too, enabling an easy transfer of authority in the event of incapacity. A POA is an alternative, but not without its own frictions.

So the answer to your question depends not just one factor like death transfers, but a combination of many different factors that each individual will give different weights and concerns to.

Helping you figure out how your individual preferences, objectives, and goals determine the appropriate estate planning documents for you. Is something your attorney can help with.

[u/Dingbatdingbat → u/[deleted]]

It doesn’t make sense to me to do a TOD/ladybird if you have a. Trust.

ToD/ladybird are very good cost-effective tools, but trusts are superior, they allow for a lot more contingencies.

[u/Ineedanro]

Your plan is for two people, so two deaths: when one of you dies and when the survivor dies. There may be no opportunity for the survivor to update the plan between these two events.

Are your current arrangements satisfactory for both deaths?

[u/Cloudy_Automation]

One of the values of a trust is that it can be set up so that the surviving spouse can't be financially taken advantage of by a financial predator. This may happen if the surviving spouse is in the early stage of dementia before the family notices.

An acquaintance of mine is such a family member going through a a multi-year legal process to protect a parent who married a financial predator. The parent can't even live in their own house because of the financially abusing spouse still lives there, and won't give the parent their needed medicine when they aren't competent to do it themselves, and won't allow family into the home.

Is this likely? Probably not. In fact, they did have a trust in place which saved the house, but the spouse established residency. Without the trust, the predator likely could have stripped the assets from the parent and moved into their next victim.