AARP Digital Editions offer you practical tips, proven solutions, and expert guidance.Many of us spend a lifetime building wealth and accumulating assets, but fail to properly plan how all of this will be passed on once we are gone. And while dealing with complex financial issues such as inheritance and estate taxes forces us to face our own mortality, making these difficult decisions is something we all need to do.
Living trust attorney and bestselling author Jeffrey Condon is extremely familiar with these types of situations and understands the importance of a living trust in an increasingly uncertain world. Now, with The Living Trust Advisor, he skillfully discusses the various aspects of this document and details how it can provide a seamless transfer of assets to your spouse, children, and other beneficiaries after you are gone.
Written in a straightforward and accessible styleand peppered with Condon's trademark humorThe Living Trust Advisor puts the living trust in perspective and walks you through the four life phases associated with it. Page by page, this practical guide will help you:
Address the numerous issues that should be considered before first meeting with a living trust lawyer and other key players in this arenaEstablish and manage your living trust over the course of your life as well as prepare it to carry out your financial wishes once you and your spouse have passed onIdentify potential inheritance problems now, so you can build solutions into your living trust before it's too lateDistribute living trust assets to future generations and protect those assets once the transfer is completeAnd much more
Throughout the book, Condon provides you with real-world examples that illustrate key points or clarify particular concepts. While many of these examples are drawn from Condon's professional relationship with clients, some anecdotes are associated with his personal experiences in this field.
If you've picked up this book, then you're probably thinking about putting together a living trust. Or, perhaps you already have a living trust and you're looking to revisit it. Whatever your reasons, this reliable resource contains the straightforward advice and practical insights you need to create and maintain a living trust that will ensure your final financial wishes are carried out in full.
JEFFREY L. CONDON, ESQ. has practiced in trust, estate, and probate law since 1987 at the law offices of Condon& Condon in Santa Monica, California. With his late father, Gerald M. Condon, he is the coauthor ofBeyond the Grave: The Right Way and the Wrong Way of Leaving Money to Your Children and Others, the bestselling inheritance planning book in American publishing history, which theWall Street Journal called the best estate planning book in America. When not tending to his clients, Living Trusts and inheritance matters, Jeffrey enjoys swimming 3,000 meters daily with Southern California Aquatics, dining with his lovely girlfriend, Kim, listening to 70s and 80s pop music, getting together with his lifelong friends, and finding opportunities to spend quality time with his grown children.
Pregame Warm-Up
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Read This Before You Read This Book xiii
Acknowledgments xxi
The First Quarter: Establishing Your Living Trust 1
Chapter 1 How You Established Your Living Trust Without a Clear Understanding of What It Is and How It Works
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You Don't Know What You Don't Know about Your Living Trust 3
Chapter 2 What Does the Living Trust Do, and How Does It Do It?
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The Best Explanation of the Living Trust You Will Ever Get 10
Chapter 3 Do You Really Need a Living Trust?
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Dont Let Someone Sell You Something You Dont Need 14
Chapter 4 Establishing Your Living Trust
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No Better Way to Get Started . . . Than to Get Started 21
Chapter 5 Who Should You Select as the Lifetime Agent of Your Living Trust?
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If You Become Incapacitated, Will Your Lifetime Agent Manage Your Living Trust for Your Benefit . . . or for His? 31
Chapter 6 You Can Select Your Children as Your After-Death Agent, but Will They Carry Out Your Living Trusts Inheritance Instructions?
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"That Was Our Parents' Wish, but It Ain't Our Wish" 41
The Second Quarter: Living with Your Living Trust during the Lifetimes of You and Your Spouse 51
Chapter 7 Functions of Your Living Trust While Both You and Your Spouse Are Alive
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Don't Quite Forget about Your Living Trust After You Have Thrown It into Your Safe-Deposit Box 53
Chapter 8 The Five Concerns about the Real Estate You Transferred to Your Living Trust
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You Still Own Your House! 65
Chapter 9 Should You Tell Your Children about Your Living Trust?
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Don't Dismiss the Chance to Have a Family Inheritance MeetingEspecially If the Lawyer Won't Charge You 73
The Third Quarter: Living with Your Living Trust after the Death of Your Spouse 81
Chapter 10 Will You Divert Your Deceased Spouse's Half of the Living Trust Assets from Your Offspring?
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How to Make Your Children Fret and Hope That You Will Do the Right Thing 83
Chapter 11 The Power to Change Your Deceased Spouse's Inheritance Instructions . . . or Not!
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How to Lord It over Your Children with Threats of Changing Your Living Trust 89
Chapter 12 Dealing with Your Living Trust If You Remarry
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The Battle Royal: Your Second Spouse versus Your First Children 94
Chapter 13 Splitting the Living Trust Assets After Your Spouse Dies, Preparing Your Spouse's Estate Tax Return, and Other Tax Stuff That You Would Rather Just Ignore
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As Much as You Want to, Don't Skip This Chapter! To Prevent Estate Taxes after Your Death, You Must Deal with Estate Tax Matters after Your Spouse's Death 99
The Fourth Quarter: Dying with Your Living Trust 113
Chapter 14 Distribution of Your Living Trust After Both You and Your Spouse Are Dead
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The Inheritance Arena Is Not for the Fainthearted 115
Chapter 15 Don't Intentionally Leave Your Children Unequal Inheritances
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So What If One Needs It More Than the Other? 119
Chapter 16 The Accidental Unequal Inheritance
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If You Think You Have Treated Your Children Equally by Leaving Them Equal Inheritances, I Have Some News for You! 124
Chapter 17 Don't Make a Child Who Owes You Money a Debtor to Your Other Children
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An Unforgiven and Unpaid Loan to a Child Can Wreak Havoc After Your Death 131
Chapter 18 Do Not Leave Your Child an Outright Inheritance
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I'm Not Kidding! Don't Leave Your Child an Outright Inheritance 138
Chapter 19 Using Your Living Trust to Force Your Child into a Conventional Lifestyle
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If the Twig Is Bent, Will Force Do Anything to Straighten It Out? 167
Chapter 20 The Success of the Third Party Irrevocable Protection Trust (PUPPET) Depends on Whom You've Selected as the Third Party
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Try Not to Appoint One Private Person to Hold and Manage Money for Another Private Person 172
Chapter 21 Who Are Your Grandchildren?
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Do You Really Want Your Living Trust Assets to Ultimately Wind Up with Your Son's Second Wife's Kids from Her First Marriage? 179
Chapter 22 The IRS Is Back! And This Time, It's for Real!
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"Sorry about Your Parents' Deaths. That Will Be $200,000, Please." 184
Chapter 23 Who Pays the Estate Tax?
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Don't Make One Person Pay the Estate Tax on Living Trust Gifts That Go to Another Person 196
Postgame: Review and Lessons Learned 205
Chapter 24 Question and Answer Time!
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Take the Opportunity to Ask This Expensive Lawyer Your Questions . . . at No Charge 207
Chapter 25 A Random Sampling of Cautionary Tales from the Inheritance Arena
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Read about, and Learn from, My Previous Mistakes and the Mistakes of My Clients 222
About the Author
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An Invitation from the Author to Contact Him at No Charge 243
Index 247
