Do I Need a Trust if I Own Out of State Real Estate?
At WM Law, we like to use the KISS principle when it comes to developing estate plans. That is, we like to set up an estate plan in the simplest form that can achieve the goals of our clients. Consequently, most of the estate plans that I create don’t include a trust. I have set up plenty of trusts, of course, but I have found that most people don’t actually need trust. I feel that trusts add unnecessary complexity to an estate plan if they are not needed, plus, even more concerning, they create a false sense of security. If I can create an estate plan without a trust that still accomplishes the client’s goals, that’s what we do.
The recommendation to forego a trust oftentimes surprises people. One of the most common concerns I hear is that the client owns real estate in another state, oftentimes a vacation home. They have heard that if you own a property in another state, then that property requires a trust. Sometimes, that is exactly the case, but that is due to the laws of the […]