Dear Readers,
Allow me to introduce you to estate planning attorney Brandon Rains. Brandon is an experienced estate planning and business planning attorney practicing in the Denver Metro and Fort Collins areas of Colorado. The Rains’ Law Firm values include Compassion, Comprehensiveness, Family First, Integrity, and Purposefulness.
Brandon has kindly answered my questions about Revocable Trust basics in a way that everyone can understand.
Kristi: Can you please explain what a revocable trust is?
Brandon: A revocable living trust is like a will but behaves differently. A trust avoids probate, thus keeping all your affairs private after you pass away. A trust can only control the assets that it owns, so part of creating a trust includes making the trust own real estate, brokerage accounts, and bank accounts, and being a beneficiary of retirement accounts and life insurance policies.
Kristi: Who needs a revocable trust? Who does not?
Brandon: Whether or not you need a revocable living trust is not so much about how big or small your net worth it, but if you prefer to keep your assets and family matters private, if you have real estate in multiple states, and ultimately how you want to distribute your assets after you pass away.
Kristi: What makes your law firm different from others?
Brandon: I think most importantly we help our clients integrate into their estate plan conversations about affection, memories, values, wisdom, life experiences and lessons, and advice and council. This helps beneficiaries make better life and financial decisions rather than an inheritance have a “I just won the lottery” effect.
We maintain a relationship with our clients after they sign their documents. We address future situations that could happen rather than simply looking at how life is like today, we collaborate with our clients’ professionals. We help make the trust own assets.
As a husband and father of four, I understand the worries, concerns, and hopes of parents. So often, we are filled with hope and worry for the future. Parents want to hope for the best, but we feel the need to prepare for the worst. We also want to do the most and best we can to try to guarantee that everything will turn out how we hope.
Kristi: Brandon, thank you for taking the time to help us understand about this one (of many) component of a complete estate plan.
