Last week I met with a client in our Metairie office to make some changes to a Revocable Living Trust that she had established in 2001. The primary goal in establishing this Louisiana Living Trust was to avoid the court-supervised probate process (also know as succession) after each spouse’s death. As you’ve heard me say time and time again, avoiding probate can save your family thousands of dollars in probate expenses, months of delay, and a great deal of stress.
My client and her late husband purchased this trust from a non-attorney financial advisor. When I met the client, we discovered the trust was not properly funded. Funding means moving assets out of your name and into a trust. The primary assets that must be moved into a Louisiana Living Trust to avoid probate are real estate (including your home) and non-retirement investments. The financial advisor who sold this trust did make sure the investments were part of the trust. However, for one reason or another, the home was never legally transferred to the trust.
Because of this error, when the husband died in 2004, the family home was still titled in his name. Now, the wife cannot transact the house without going through a probate procedure. This will delay the changes she is looking to make to her trust and end up costing the family more in legal fees and court costs. All of this would have been avoided if the trust had been properly funded with all real estate from the outset, and the family would not be forced to expend the extra cost and effort associated with the Louisiana Succession.
To avoid probate the right way and make sure that you fully understand the proper funding for your Louisiana Revocable Living Trust, call (504) 274-1980 in the Metairie and New Orleans Area or call (985) 246-3020 in Mandeville, Covington, Slidell, Houma, Thibodaux, and surrounding areas.