That is our plan as well.
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That sounds like a good plan. Youād still need an executor for āpour over willā (to catch anything not covered by the trust), right? (We donāt have a trust, so Iām no expert. Just remembering a discussion with our financial planner about the possibility.)
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@Colorado_mom - Iāll have to look into that.
I believe my home (and contents?, thatās what I need to clarify) are in the trust, as well as my investment account. IRA has beneficiaries; credit union has TOD beneficiaries. I believe only my vehicle is uncovered.
Trusts vs. Wills : Curious why you chose what you did.
Time to update our will ā or start over with a revocable trust. Most of our assets are currently in retirement accounts (Rothās and Regular IRAās), and some suggest they should not go into a trust anyway. POD & TODās all up to date.
Met with two attorneys, who each advised totally different approaches. We can meet with another (hopefully for a tie breaker and not yet another direction), or ask the wise wisdom of the CC posters 
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We spoke with our financial planner about the advisability of putting our house in a trust. He advised against it. But we will be discussing all options with the estate lawyer.
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A trust could have advantages for some families. For our simple situation (grown kids, almost all assets designated beneficiary of spouse, alternate-kids) we opted to just do a will.
Found this article discussing need for ābare bonesā will, even if you have a trust.
Have a Trust? You Still Need a Will | Nolo
One reason not mentioned is that you might have (or later acquire) assets and where you donāt get around to designating the trust as beneficiary.
I was curious about that also.
It feels so complicated!
Your link needs an edit. It returns āpage not found.ā Try to remove the backslash at the end.
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The advantage of a trust is that there is no probate.
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Good point. And in some states probate can be really ugly and expensiveā¦. taking months or years. (Luckily not the case in CO. As my motherās executor, I did not need to hire a lawyer. The county clerk told me about half of executors here do their own paperwork.)
Another advantage of a trust that I remembered is that avoiding probate means no public records. That is important for some people who will want their decisions to remain private after estate is settled. Also there can be some tax advantages for higher value estates.
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Thinking your mom needs to start dishing out maximum annual gifts to family and then you can keep paying for dinner. 
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Everything we have is in our trust, house, cabin, investments, etc. We have a will, HCPOA, funeral directive, etc., but itās all straightforward as everything goes to our only child after we both pass. Initially, our documents specified an executor and time-release of assets but, by the time our son was 20, it was clear he was capable of responsibly handling whatever heād inherit, so we amended the docs to transfer everything to him outright, no intermediaries, no delays, but hopefully not for a long while yet.
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Our financial planner also outlined some disadvantages to putting everything in a trust. We have two kids, not one. The only thing that will need to go through probate is our houseā¦everything else is POD to the spouse if still aliveā¦or one of our kids.
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Good idea! Though Iāll never have the heart to suggest it to her. Of course, itās my own fault, Iāve gotten into this routine with many friends and family members over the years. I always take out my credit card, and now itās the expected routine that I pay. But Iām tired of it, and retired.
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in our case, the only thing in the Trust is the House; everything else is PoD/ToD. CA probate can take a long time so trust makes sense. (yes, CA does have a law for ToD of primary residence but that law had an expiration date, and we werenāt ready to gamble that theyād grandfather existing ToDās in)
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Right. Our kids will have to deal with the house and contents. But thatās it. Our goal is to die with 10 cents left in our other accounts. Our financial planner says we arenāt doing a very good job of getting thereš.
We will be tossing all these ideas around with the estate lawyer. She is really good (from our previous experience with her) and she is highly recommended by everyone we know for estate planning and wills and all the other documents we need to get done.
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āTrusts vs. Wills : Curious why you chose what you did.ā
In my case, I became widowed before any of my kids were 30.
My FA recommended a trust and I met with an estate planning attorney in a dear friendās firm. My friend (corporate bankrupt atty.) didnāt think I needed a trust but his associateās explanation of pros and cons convinced me.
I was told the biggest fault of trusts isnāt the trust, but the funding (really failure to fund).
As I said above, I stipulated age 35 as when they could assume roles and responsibilities regarding the estate.
Maybe a clear will could have sufficed, but āif I died tomorrowāā¦was forefront in my mind.
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My brother is the co-executor of an estate. Heās had nothing but trouble with the other executor. Both of them are also beneficiaries of the estate and the co-executor (according to my brother) is moving slowly. My brother believes (heās too cheap to get legal advice) the other executor is cheating him. The other executor is a lawyer, which is the reason heās taken the lead on selling stock, etc. and my brother has received a partial distribution of funds. I donāt have much patience with my brother and everytime he calls to tell more the situation sounds worse. My take-awayāno co-executors.
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We have the same situation. One kid does primary care. The other has an MBA and runs a fintech company, although he isnāt great a details. But, I have two financial advisors and have a relationship with the main one, an accountant, and a lawyer (whom the kids have known since they were little).
We have a dynasty trust set up in part for the purposes of asset protection and in part because I thought severe economic problems would cause the Congress to lower the estate tax exemption.
I am a co-executor with my sister on my motherās will. Has not been a problem and is unlikely to be.
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I think problems with co-executors depend on the specific circumstances and family dynamics. All families are different. To quote Tolstoy: āAll happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.ā
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