Written By: Warner Lewis III, CLDP
There is some confusion around the differences between Living Wills, Last Wills, and Living Trusts. A Living Will spells out your wishes regarding your end-of-life care. Do you want life sustaining treatment that would only go to artificially delay the moment of your death? What about tube feeding and hydration, the use of drugs, electric shock, and artificial breathing to keep you alive if you are terminal or irreversibly comatose or vegetative? These are important decisions!
By comparison, a Last Will and Testament is used to distribute assets that are stuck in your name when you die. Your Will is nothing more than a note of your wishes to the Probate Judge! A Will is a one-way ticket to Probate Court, a lawsuit that you file against yourself, using your own money, for the benefit of your creditors!
A Revocable Living Trust avoids Probate for Trust assets by spelling out when, how and to whom those assets are to be distributed upon death. And because your wishes are spelled out in advance, no Court involvement is required. Under a Will, a Probate Estate can take a year or more to settle completely. A Trustee may begin to settle the Trust Estate in as little as 10 days – the time it usually takes to obtain a Death Certificate.
Avoiding the cost and delay of Probate is why more and more people opt for Living Trusts. Well-drafted and properly implemented Trusts can help to mitigate contests, avoid the unnecessary expense and delays of Probate, and protect assets for generations to come.
Life Planning, Inc. and Warner Lewis are Arizona Certified Legal Document Preparers (AZCLDP #81386 and #80180), authorized by the Arizona Supreme Court to give consumers general legal information and legal document preparation services. LPI is not a law firm, its representatives are not lawyers, and it does not give legal advice of any kind. All client information is treated as confidential, but not privileged information.