Need a trust for a modest Estate

[stingray_on]

What is the name of your state? CA.

I am reading Estate Planning for Dummies and it gives you general knowledge of Willls and Trusts. We have probably one million dollars Estate , if my wife and I died today. We have term insurance of $700,000 for both of us and I am 52 and my wife , 43. Our retirement is worth around $200,000 and have $30,000 in stocks.

We have one daugther ,age 11. We have a Will- we wrote when she was born and now we want a Trust in case we both die. The book mentions a lot on Living Trust and it says that unless you have an Irrevocable life Insurance trust- you will be hit hard on taxes. As you can see, our bulk of our estate would be life insurance, is this, Irrevocable life insurance trust , the way to go for us?

We are meeting with an Estate lawyer for a free consultation. She says most Trusts cost $ 1500-3000. I was wondering can I get the forms and software and do the trust myself and then hire a lawyer to check it.

BTW, the book doesnt mention A/B trust but my understanding , if you married, isnt this the way to go?

 

[stingray_on]

anyone knows the answer

Any ideas will be greatly appreciated.

 

[BlondiePB]

Any ideas will be greatly appreciated.

Irrevocable trusts cannot be changed, unlike revocable living trusts. Have your attorney draft the trust documents and seek advice from a professional that deals with taxes for estates.

 

[stingray_on]

we have an appt w/ an estate lawyer , what are good questions to ask.

This is our 2 meeting with a lawyer, our first wanted to charge us $2,100 for an A-B trust without really explaining why we needed it. Luckly it was a free consultation and we decided not to use her. We have a modest estate with a young daugther and barely over 2 million dollars if you include our life insurances of $800,000.

We want a simple revocable trust in the event we both die and our 12 year old daughter is left behind. We want money for her to exist on day to day and money to be put aside for college and a few years later for her to get the rest of the trust. My wife mom is the trustee if we both perish but she is cheap beyond reason and we want to make sure that our daughter does not suffer as a result, my wife best friend is the back up in case my mother in law get ill or something happens.

What would be good questions to ask our lawyer, BTW , he charges $950 for the trust.

 

[candg918]

Here are some links that I found helpful after we had an attorney totally mess up our estate plan documents.

http://www.abanet.org/rppt/public/home.html

http://www.abanet.org/publiced/practical/books/wills/home.html

http://web.fidelity.com/EstatePlanning/tools/planner/estatePlanner.jhtml

http://www.finance.cch.com/financetoc.asp


Many of the state bar associations, brokerage houses, life insurance companies and financial organizations also provide information online.

 

[Dandy Don]

If they won't tell you why you need it then you need another professional who WILL explain why you need it and be able to explain the advantages on a report.