The revocable trust is an arrangement by which a person transfers ownership of their assets property into a trust, but retains the right to revoke the trust and take the trust property back throughout the course of their lifetime. In these types of trusts, the person or persons transferring their assets are know as the Settlor and are typically the Trustee and the Beneficiary of the trust during his/her life.
This trust arrangement allows the Settlor to retain control of their assets as Trustee or to revoke the trust altogether and go back to managing the assets as an individual. The main benefit of a Revocable Living Trust is that it can avoid the need for probate or a guardianship that would require the public disclosure of assets. However, this privacy and lack of disclosure can also create potential dangers including successor trustees trying to take the settlor's trust assets through incompetence challenges and successor trustees not distributing trust assets to beneficiaries. Understanding the trust and giving copies of the trust document to all beneficiaries are typically important to protect from problems with successor trustees.
For questions on Texas Probate matters, please send an e-mail message to Texas Probate lawyer Jason S. Coomer at texasprobatelawyer@texaslawyers.com or use our contact form.
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