California is a state that’s full of hard-working people. After working most of their lives, many people understandably want to protect their estate. If you are in the process of doing so, you may have heard about wills and living trusts. With that in mind, here’s a closer look at how wills and living trust differ from each other.
Control
Understandably, you want to be able to control what happens to your assets when you’re no longer living. But living trusts and wills have different ways of providing control. If you choose to set up a will, the distribution process starts after you die. Living trusts allow their owners to distribute assets while they’re still alive. As soon as you complete all required living trust-related documents, this tool immediately goes into effect.
Costs
It’s also important to think about expenses during the estate planning process. Regarding upfront costs, wills cost less money to set up than living trusts. With that said, the probate costs that wills incur are likely to be much more than the upfront costs of a living trust.
Time
In estate administration and probate, time is an important factor. If you want to take care of estate planning as fast as possible, a living trust is often faster to set up and execute than a will. That’s because wills must go through the probate process, which can be time-consuming.
In conclusion, estate planning is an extremely important part of life. Considering the importance of creating an estate plan, this is never something you should rush. Instead, think critically about whether a living trust or will makes more sense for you.