With both a will and a trust you get to decide who your beneficiaries will be when you pass away. With both, you get to decide who is going to be in charge of administering your estate; with a will that person is called an executor, with a trust they are called a trustee. The major difference difference between a will and a trust relates to real estate and the probate process. Call today at (714) 282-7488 or contact us by completing this form.
Understanding the difference between a will and a trust is very important to creating the estate plan you want to have in place.
Both a will and a trust allow you to name someone to oversee the transfer of your assets to a loved one, and both a will and a trust allow you to say who receives which assets. So, what is the difference between a will and a trust?
- WILLS: With a will if you have more than $50K in Real Estate or more than $150K combined in the estate then the estate must go through probate. So if you own any property in California it is likely valued more than $50k and you will likely have to go through probate which includes state mandated fee structures and often causes the sale of the real estate to pay the probate fees.
- TRUSTS: With a Trust you can leave assets of any amount free of probate! This makes a large impact on what you are able to leave to your loved ones and the amount of stress, time, and money that your loved ones will receive out of your estate.
This is the main difference between a will and a trust. Understanding the way that these two documents can work together to benefit you and your estate planning needs will help you prepare to do the best you can to protect your assets and provide for you and your family.