Revocable Trusts and Wills

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harley128

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From what I understand, a revocable trust sounds like the way to go for estate planning in Oklahoma.......... IE: better than a will since it avoids lengthy probate proceedings and costs..

Does anyone have any experience creating a revocable trust with one of the "do it yourself" kits? IE: LegalZoom, etc ?

Just wondered how difficult if could be , or should one just go ahead and bite the bullet with a qualified estate planning attorney ??

Thoughts ??
 

mr ed

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Pay the $1000-1500 for a lawyer especially if you have more than one property.
It has to be a good document so you can put bank accounts, property, vehicles and whatever in it .
when you go to change bank accounts they make copies and look them over before they will make changes.
You have to have a "memorandum of trust" to file to change property titles, vehicle titles. They file a copy.
It gets recorded into county records with the deeds.
If your going to have any NFA type items I would do a separate NFA trust.
Not a lawyer just my 2 cents.
*Mine has cost me about $2k so far as I keep buying properties and a new document is typed up for you to file.
It was $1k for trust and $75 per property as I added them over the years plus the fees at courthouse.
This price also included a will and medical directive.
 

KOPBET

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Hire an estate planning attorney. I paid for the trust that my real property went into. It had to be filed at the county court house for various reasons including change of "ownership" and property tax billing which now bears the name of the trust instead of mine. The wife and I both did medical directives and wills at the same time.
 

SoonerP226

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Whatever you do, don’t try to game the system yourself because you can create huge, completely unnecessary tax burdens on your descendants if you don’t know what you’re doing (and estates are one of those areas where a lot of what most people know just ain’t so).

If you’re looking at anything more complex as a holographic will (basically, a hand-written, signed, un-witnessed will), it would behoove you to have an estate planning attorney do the work.
 

Snattlerake

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We used an attorney for the trust and it went smooth as silk when dad and mom died. All of it was explained in the trust and even the oil royalty checks were simply transferred.
 

foghorn918

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Even with a trust, you'll still want a will. The trust becomes the entity that owns the assets, the will tells how the assets are to be distributed.

Ours was done by an attorney and included the Trust, Will, Advanced Directive for Health (Living Will), & Power of Attorney
We also have filled out our DNR documents
 

MacFromOK

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Even with a trust, you'll still want a will. The trust becomes the entity that owns the assets, the will tells how the assets are to be distributed.

Ours was done by an attorney and included the Trust, Will, Advanced Directive for Health (Living Will), & Power of Attorney
We also have filled out our DNR documents
Indeed, and don't be ashamed to shop around. Some attorneys want a percentage of estate value, others do a flat rate.

My siblings and I went with a flat rate, so we'd know up front what the expenses were going to be.
:drunk2:
 

bubbaturbo

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Indeed, and don't be ashamed to shop around. Some attorneys want a percentage of estate value, others do a flat rate.

My siblings and I went with a flat rate, so we'd know up front what the expenses were going to be.
:drunk2:

Why the hell would you give a percentage of the estate value regardless of amount of work required?
 

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