From the Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog
Trusts for Low Income to Mid-Wealth Clients
Emily S. Horvath (associate professor, Thomas M. Cooley School of Law) has published her article entitled Don’t be afraid to create: three simple inter-vivos trusts for low to mid-wealth clients, 11 T.M. Cooley J. Prac. & Clin. L. 173 (2009).
An excerpt from the introduction of the article is below:
Being rich is not a requirement to use a revocable living trust in an estate plan. With a little creativity, and by taking advantage of certainties provided by the probate code, astute practitioners can develop a simple and effective trust for their low and mid-wealth clients. The determining factor of when a trust is an appropriate estate planning tool should not be wealth alone; rather, it is the amount of control a client wishes to express over their assets after death. Although the cost-benefit analysis that private practitioners go through with their clients to determine a proper course of action for any legal work is necessary, there is a common misconception that revocable trusts are complicated, lengthy, and expensive.
