Many local estate planning practitioners (including lawyers at our firm) prepare estate plans that include both a will and a revocable trust. This basic structure includes a bare bones will under which the executors of the estate and guardians of any minor children are appointed, but all of the assets of the probate estate are “poured into” the client’s simultaneously executed revocable trust (sometimes known as a living trust) at the client’s death. The revocable trust itself is structured to be a “will substitute.” The revocable trust (rather than the will) contains the meat of the estate plan after a decedent’s death, whether that includes outright distributions to heirs or distributions in trust for the benefit of heirs.

Revocable trusts are used for multiple reasons, such as probate avoidance, privacy concerns (since, technically, a revocable trust is not a public document, unlike a will once probated) and ease of beneficiary designations.