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Coping With Legal Issues

When I started getting into trouble I became pretty acclimated to legal procedures. Calling my attorney and working out bail was just another way to spend a Saturday night. Unfortunately, the stiffer the charges, the more difficult it was to talk my way out of a bad situation. After so many charges, I found myself slapped with a long jail sentence, and I realized that I wanted to turn things around. Fortunately, my lawyer was able to walk me through yet another process, so that I could make the right changes. My blog discusses how to emotionally cope with legal issues so that you can start living a good life.

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Coping With Legal Issues

Is a Living Will Right for You?

by Lillian Wheeler

Everyone should plan for the future. Not only should you plan for your retirement, you should also plan for what comes after. There are different ways that you can go about that. One is to create a will. Another is to create a living trust. Most people are familiar with a will, but not everyone is familiar with what a living trust is. 

What Is a Living Trust?

There are a lot of different kinds of trust. A living trust is just one of them. Unlike some trusts that are set up for after your death to provide for your heirs, a living trust is set up while you are alive. You get to use the benefits and proceeds of it while you are alive. Once you are dead, the person you set up as a successor trustee is able to access it and make sure that your beneficiaries are taken care of.

What Are the Benefits of a Living Trust?

There are a lot of benefits to choosing to set up a living trust instead of writing a will. One of them is that a will has to go through the probate process. That can take a lot of time, leaving your heirs waiting for a long while before your estate is settled. The living trust doesn't need to go through probate, and since you have already designated a successor trustee to handle the trust, they will just need to distribute the trust in the way that you wanted. 

Another benefit is that the terms of your trust are private, no matter what. When a will gets sent through probate, the will becomes part of the public record. That means that anyone who spends the time to look can find out about your debts, your assets, and any other information that is in your will. Your living trust, since it doesn't have to go through the probate process, never becomes part of a public record, so no one will ever know what the terms were unless that person needs to know or is part of the process. 

You want to do everything you can to plan for your own future and protect the ones you love. Making sure that you do some kind of estate planning will do that. There are several options open to you, one of which is a living trust. It may be the perfect way for you to protect your own future and your family's future. 

To learn more about living trusts, contact services like MARKHOFF.

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