If you want to know more about living trusts, this book is here to help. Make Your Living Trust gives you straightforward and easy-to-understand information about how living trusts:

• compare to wills
• pass property to beneficiaries without probate
• provide for minor children, and
• help protect against unexpected incapacity.

You might have heard about living trusts and have a general sense that you should make one. But if you're like most people, you're not exactly sure why or how to do it. If this sounds like you, Make Your Living Trust provides the information and support you need to make informed estate planning decisions.

For many people, living trusts are a useful tool to keep their property out of probate. This makes a lot of sense because probate often makes the process of wrapping up an estate more complicated and expensive than it needs to be. And there are other reasons to make a living trust--a living trust allows you to authorize someone to take care of your property in case of incapacity, and (unlike wills) living trusts keep your personal business private.

That said, not everyone needs a living trust. Many people need only a will and a durable power of attorney. Others might use those in conjunction with pay-on-death accounts or transfer-on-death deeds. Compared to other estate planning tools, living trusts can be more expensive to create and more complicated to live with. So, you don't want to go through the trouble and expense of making one if you don't need to.

Make Your Living Trust helps you think through these and many other trust-related issues. For example, it helps you weigh the pros and cons of making a living trust yourself versus having an attorney draw one up. It also covers questions that might come up as you make a living trust (with or without a lawyer), like:

• What types of property work well in a living trust?
• Can you and your spouse make a living trust together?
• What is the role of a successor trustee?
• Who decides when minor children receive their inheritance?
• How do you transfer property into your living trust?
• What makes a living trust legal?
• Where should you store your living trust?
• Do you have to register your trust or share it with your family?
• What other estate planning documents might you need?

Make Your Living Trust can help with all of this and more. It will be your steady companion as you learn about wills and trusts and start to craft your estate plan.