revocable trust vs. Marital Property Agreement

[timberland]

My wife of 35 yrs and I hold all our assets jointly (in WI). I have 2 adult, single children and everyone gets along, no issues. I started looking at a revocable trust, irrevocable trust, and now a marital property agreement. Then there is always talk of tax advantages for the trusts. I want to keep it simple, but don't want to lose out on any tax advantages and prevent probate or inheritance tax. I will include Power of Attorney no matter which way I go.

Any experiences out there, and why did you choose what you did?

 

[gbflyer]

Our attorney advised us that there will be probate no matter what, at least in our state. We ended up doing a will, might do a trust in the future. Regardless of your children's attitude towards one another now, that has a habit of changing when it's time to divide up the spoils.

Always good to get professional advice.

 

[Tmac]

Time to talk to competent estate planners in your area. I’d interview 2-3, pick one, and have an attorney well versed in planning review the plan and execute any documents. A living trust solves most estate/inheritance problems in my state most of the time, avoids regular probate and any challenges to the plan. YMMV.

 

[yfarm]

After observing and participating in several personal estate disputes/conflicts I believe parents most valuable gift to their children and grandchildren is an ironclad estate plan to prevent family destruction over assets. If that has already occurred due to a dysfunctional individual, even more reason to develope a plan that will survive challenges. The one time in life when individuals have an opportunity to get something for nothing brings out the worst, particularly in the spouses of the siblings.

 

[eddielasvegas]

I watched a video of hers a few weeks ago where she said that Irrevocable Trusts often have higher tax rates.

This woman impresses the heck out of me for being being on the ball.

Here is her channel link for "trust" related videos.


Eddie

 

[SDHNTR]

This is the wrong place to seek such advice. There are no uniform answers. Every single case is different. Seek professional counsel.

 

[WiscoHoundsman]

Living in Wi and currently going through this process. I’ll PM you the place we are using and they have a free webinar to watch and a free consultation to ask any questions you may have. My understanding is a properly set up trust in WI will help minimize probate but beyond that does not do much for our current taxes or estate taxes. It can also do some things regarding one spouses death and potentially remarrying. Though estate taxes kick in after $15 million individually at from the feds. Wisconsin does not have a state estate tax.

Just what I am learning as we navigate this process.

 

[yfarm]

For those of you who own tangible property in Illinois, beware that non residents have estate tax applied for the value of the property as a percentage of their entire estate.