Reply to If your parent recently died (estate planning)

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My spouse and I experienced the deaths of all four of our parents over the last several years. One set of parents had set up a trust with all records easily accessible. The other set had a very simple will.

The estate of the parents with the trust was easy to settle. The siblings simply divided everything into equal portions and the sibling who was executor distributed the funds. There was a little bit of confusion about the personal property and some tax issues with the estate, but those were solved pretty easily. The entire estate was settled within four, maybe five months. The trust was private so there was no court involvement.

The other estate had to go through probate, which meant court paperwork and oversight. In some ways, this was a good thing because the person who was executor has some mental health issues and was having difficulty doing the job, but refused to let anyone help in a way that was actually useful. Discussions of deadlines the court required helped the executor to move along a bit, but it took a very long time to get the executor to make any distributions at all. It has been over three years now and the estate has still not been fully distributed and closed.

So I would say that a trust is a good idea if your adult kids are mature and trustworthy. It can be a quick and private way of handling your estate. If you have any reason to be concerned about the tustworthiness of one or more of your kids, a will that has to go through probate can be a better choice. Wills filed in court are public, so everyone involved can keep an eye on the progress.  The oversight provided by the probate court can also help to keep the executor on track, and hopefully, honest. [/quote]

You should not be blaming the executor for the fact it has taken three years for probate to close. I am the executor for my mom's estate. I am a year in. Our estate lawyer told us the whole process would take about three years.[/quote]

DP. And it wouldn't take that long with a trust, which seems to be pp's point.[/quote]

People are saying the word Trust like there’s only one.  That’s why estate attorneys are necessary.  Honest attorneys won’t sell you useless trusts that do nothing.

I can’t believe there were only 4,000 people who owed federal estate taxes.  My husband’s mother and father died close together and were part of the 4,000.  Even with 30 years of paying tuitions, houses, gifting,  the estate still owed  estate and gift taxes.

The super rich must be hiding their money. That’s why they donate so much money to Trump.  He’s corrupt and barely hiding it.  The rich have to be given something for all the money they spend on useless crap like a White House ballroom. [/quote]

Exactly.  The truly rich feel truly entitled to hide their assets by planning to do so for years / decades.[/quote]

To see some of these old guys still amassing multi millions of dollars I always wonder why they just can’t relax.  Trump and Kushner come to mind as greedy I’m above the law types.    They aren’t taking the money with them.   Pass it on already to a part of the world that can use it or even your own neighborhood.   [/quote]

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