You have many options for protecting your assets for yourself and your heirs both while you are alive and after you are gone. At Bingham Legal Group PC in Michigan, we have seen the many benefits that people enjoy after setting up a revocable living trust.
As the name implies, you set up the revocable living trust to benefit you while you are living, the State Bar of Michigan explains. The trust is revocable because you may change it at any time. The trust itself is an entity that you create. It is separate from yourself, so when you fund it, you are transferring the titles and ownership of the assets to the trust. You no longer own them.
Even though you do not own the assets, as the grantor you can name yourself as the trustee, who manages the trust assets, and the beneficiary, who receives benefits from the trust. For example, you may fund the trust with investments. Then, as the trustee, you continue to manage those investments, and as the beneficiary, you receive the interest payments or dividends from the investments.
The benefits from a revocable living trust continue after you die. None of the assets in the trust are part of your estate, so they do not go through probate. You can name a successor trustee to take over the management of the assets, and beneficiaries who can receive the benefits that you enjoyed during your lifetime. You decide how the trustee will distribute the benefits, whether that is ongoing payments or a lump sum, or both.
More information about revocable living trusts is available on our webpage.