Anonymous wrote:If we both own the house - how can it go into two separate trusts? Seems complicated? What happens if spouse passes away? How do I access his trust to get the other half of the home which is already mine as we are both on the title? Confused what to do if we change current title to having the trust be the beneficiary?

All of these are 101 questions for your estate attorney. Answers vary according to jurisdiction and construction of the trust.

House titles do not have beneficiaries.

If we both own the house - how can it go into two separate trusts? Seems complicated? What happens if spouse passes away? How do I access his trust to get the other half of the home which is already mine as we are both on the title? Confused what to do if we change current title to having the trust be the beneficiary?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Think about whether you want your kids getting their inheritance all at once. We just set up our wills/trusts and we have kids in their early 20s. We set up a schedule so that they will get 25% immediately, 50% at 30 and remainder at 35. This is except for 401ks where they will get about 1/10th per year (with exceptions and in consideration of tax law changes). They are good kids but didn’t want them to deal with getting $4 million in their 20s.

This. I know people with even later distribution. Lawyer commented it was also a good way to protect assets from an early marriage gone bad. This had never occurred to me.

You can protect the assets at any age by leaving them as trust assets- your beneficiary will inherit them but they’ll still belong to the trust. So a spouse will never have any entitlement to that asset.

Make sure you actually fund your trust. So many people create one but never follow through we re-titling the assets into the name of the trust.

We did this. We have an only child who will inherit our entire estate, so we set up a trust to ensure her assets are protected from any future partner. And I second what the poster above me said about funding the trust. It feels like a lot of homework, but make sure you do it.

Op here. How do you fund the trust? What do we need to do to fund it? What steps? Do we need to change the title of house and properties to the trust? Will the lawyer help us do that? What about 401Ks do they go to spouse as beneficiary or to the trust? Sounds like a lot.

Yes to all past your initial questions except (usually) the last, as spouses get a stretch on IRA and 401k withdrawals that trusts don’t get. You need to retitle assets, the lawyer can help but it will cost. You can also DIY.

Anonymous wrote:Can you retitle a house into a trust if it still has mortgage? What about renal property: if it has business license, change of ownership would trigger need to obtain new business licenses. Right?

For a revocable trust, you can transfer the house without triggering any changes to the mortgage.

Irrevocable trusts are more complex, but if you have enough money to need an irrevocable trust, you probably don't have to worry about mortgages.

(I don't know about the rental property business license.)

Anonymous wrote:Think about the scenario in which one of you passes away and the other remarries. What happens to the assets? Do they become joint property with the new spouse? What happens then if the remaining party from the original marriage dies, leaving the new spouse as a widow/widower? What is protected for your children?

This is one of my priorities. We just lost our SIL last year and BIL is already remarried. I imagine that my DH would do the same if I were to pass away. I am okay with that, but I do want to protect my DDs. DH and I are creating individual trusts. Inherited money from my parents will go into my trust with DDs as successor trustees. DH is the primary beneficiary of my 403b, which will provide enough for his retirement. Our DDs are beneficiaries to my inherited IRA(s).

Can you retitle a house into a trust if it still has mortgage? What about renal property: if it has business license, change of ownership would trigger need to obtain new business licenses. Right?