Living Trust

[ConBan]

What is the name of your state? Illinois
I just had a living trust completed by an attorney. After everything was done, I decided I wanted to make two minor changes. In speaking with the attorney, she advised there will be a fee for each change, and in my opinion, the fee is rather high. Can I make this change on my own? I only wanted to change the second executor and remove someone from my pour over will.

 

[Dandy Don]

Fee is deliberately set to be a bit costly to avoid having people continually making changes. Now would be the time to double-check and triple-check it to make sure you won't have any more changes in the foreseeable future.

No you can't do it on your own. You don't want any unforeseen legal technicalities occurring when it is time for the trust to be administered--hence the importance of having your legal representative scrutinize every aspect of it while you are still alive.

Now the pour-over will will have to be retyped on the word processor.

 

[curb1]

Changing items in a living will.

Dandy Don,
What is wrong with continually making changes? My living trust is a very fluid instrument that is changing as the family changes. What is the difficulty of adding names or deleting names as necessary to reflect my desires. If I went to an attorney every time I make small changes, it would cost a small fortune.
The question (I think) everyone would like to know is what are the accepted mechanics for making the change. Is it just a matter of redating and retyping the changes? Do the changes need to be notorized? Witnessed?

Thank you,
Curb1