Conflicting Information in Estate Plans

Creating an estate plan is often considered a major step in a family’s lives. You and numerous other people may have put off planning for one reason or another, because of a busy schedule or just procrastination. But now, you feel the time has come to get your affairs in order.

Using a Revocable Trust

A revocable trust can have many uses, including protecting assets and keeping those assets from having to go through the probate process. It is also known as a living trust because it goes into effect as soon as you create it. However, when it goes into effect, you have to fund the trust in order for it to be of use. Funding the trust means that you transfer assets to the ownership of the trust, such as signing over a title or deed to the trust. If you fail to do this, the trust is essentially useless.

Conflicts with your Will

Even if you use a revocable trust, a will is still a vital, necessary planning document. It is possible to use it to indicate that any assets not placed in the trust at the time of your death should pour over into the trust, or you can use it to make specific requests and detail other important information. Both of these options allow you to elect usage when drawing up your will.

If the information in the trust and in the will are different, but regarding the same asset, conflict could ensue. For example, if you want to leave a car to your niece and say so through the trust, but then state in your will that you want to leave that same car to a nephew, a problem arises. However, because the trust went into effect during your life and the will only goes into effect after your passing, the information in the revocable trust takes precedence over the information in the will.

Other Outcomes

The trust having the final decision is not the only outcome that could occur. As mentioned, funding the trust is important. As a result, if you did not title the car to the trust, the information in the will may instead play a more important role in the decision because the trust does not own the vehicle.

As you can see, any conflict of information could cause considerable difficulties when it comes time to settle your final affairs. Fortunately, you may lessen the chance of conflict by having an experienced estate planning attorney help you create those documents.

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