Why Choose a Trust for Estate Planning

Are you considering a Virginia trust as part of your estate plan? If so, I encourage you to read a new MSNBC article on why a trust may be the best tool for you.

Overall, this article does a great job of boiling down some of the top pros and cons to using a trust in your estate plan.

Some reasons you might want to use a trust include: asset management, probate avoidance, and tax planning.

But you do have to make some trade-offs if you choose a trust over a will. One factor: trusts are typically more complicated to draft, so they are more costly to setup.

I do have one word of caution about the MSNBC article: do not allow just any “professional” to draft your trust. I’m not sure why the article does not simply talk about attorneys as trust drafters.

A trust is a complex legal document. In the United States, only an attorney is legally allowed to consult with you about your needs and draft a document for you. No other “professional” should be doing this for you. You might be able to save some money up front by using software or a fill-in-the-blank form, but your heirs could face serious headaches and legal problems when your trust matters most.