When I was married, I had a family trust so my kids wouldn’t have to deal with probate when we died, but now that I am single I’m not sure I really need one. I have a simple Will with all my assets going to my daughter who lives in a another state. I own my house outright, and I live in the state of Montana if that matters. Is having to go through probate really that big a deal? I would rather use the $1,500 needed to set up a trust for something else. What say you?
The major value of a trust for you is it VASTLY simplifies your daughter taking care of your affairs while you are alive but incapacitated due to age, stroke, senility, car crash, etc.
The major value of a trust for her is once you are dead, she can obtain control of your stuff immediately. Not give it it herself immediately, but operate the process of paying your bills, et al, without needing to wait for the courts.
The importance of a trust is also connected to how wealthy you are. If you die with the house & your financial assets <$100K, it’s sorta “why bother?”. If it’s more like $10M, you’d be a fool not to have a trust.
For someone in your simple situation, I’d suggest that a POD/TOD designation on all your financial accounts and a TOD deed (“beneficiary deed”) on your house would be everything you need to ensure your daughter is promptly rewarded when you die. Your estate at that point would consist of the crap inside your house, and any vehicles. Which could probably be handled legally using your state’s “simple small estate” laws which largely avoid the messy details of probate.
That still leaves you screwed if you become infirm before you become dead. IME, there are plenty of elderly who can get by day to day living just fine, but really need help with the administrivia of banking, bill paying, taxes, etc. They are not legally incompetent, but they are functionally unable to keep up with ordinary middle class money matters. That is where a trust is invaluable; she can smoothly do those things for you, with your knowledge and approval, as your elderly laziness slowly robs you of the oomph to do it yourself.
I’m single, no kids, and have dissolved the trust I had when married. Because I now have nobody trustworthy to designate to manage my affairs if/when I get too lazy/stupid to do it myself. As soon as I can identify that person or entity, I’ll be creating a new trust. Solely looking to when I’m alive, not when I’m dead. As said just below; by then what happens next doesn’t greatly matter to me.
Although truthfully, that should only be said tongue in cheek. By far the worst thing my father ever did to his kids was to die with no will and no plan and no map. It was truly an asshole move, despite being motivated only by laziness & topic-of-death-avoidance. Don’t be that guy.
A lot of people will come in here and tell you how important a trust is. I’m not so sure I agree. It can make certain inheritance matters easier and there is little downside, but OTOH, for a simple estate such as yours promises to be, probate would not likely be complicated or protracted. Plus - as I always say in such matters - what do you care? You’ll be dead! 
Disclaimer: I’m a lawyer married to a lawyer, but not your lawyer or necessarily in your state. We have a trust.
I’m not familiar with POD/TOD designation or TOD deeds. Can you tell me more about what they mean and what they are for?
PAD/TOD means “Pay on Death / Transfer on Death”.
On any bank account or financial account at e.g Fidelity, etc., you are allowed to designate a primary beneficiary or set of beneficiaries. And also a set of secondary beneficiary(ies) to replace the primary(ies) if they later become dead while you’re still alive.
When you die the institution will find out real quickly from SSA. The beneficiaries then contact the institution and the institution will promptly pay out all the money in the account to the beneficiaries. The beneficiaries will probably need to provide a death certificate, and proof of who they are (driver’s license, etc.) but within a few days the money will be theirs free and clear.
A “beneficiary deed” is the same idea, but applied to real estate. You file it with the county where your other real estate deed paperwork is kept. Then legally as soon as you’re dead, the house or whatever belongs to the named beneficiaries.
In both cases there’s no probate, no court, no nothing. That money that disappeared from your accounts or the property that now belongs to your beneficiaries is not part of your probate estate.
Your executor personal representative will still need to file a probate case to close out your life and deal with disposing of whatevers left over. Which is usually cars & personal effects and that’s it. But it’s vastly simpler when all the real money is already gone. And it’s certainly nice for the heirs to start out with all that money right up front rather than getting it at the far end of the probate process, months or a year later.
Some states offer TOD on car titles as well. More states are joining that movement, or at least were before the USA started falling apart. If your state offers that feature, that’s another item of your property that can bypass probate and transfer directly to whoever you designate.
Thanks. I think that makes more sense than having a trust in my situation.
My father did something very similar to this, and it worked very well. By then he was a widower and living in an apartment, so his assets were mostly financial, and they were in the trust. I filed his will under the simple small estate laws, and got immediate permission to start acting as executor. I went to his bank and investment firm with certified death certificates, copies of the trust, and my ID, and got immediate control. Easy, and I was able to do these things myself, without a lawyer. This is one big benefit of a trust after the person has died. Without the trust, much more time and expense would have been required.
Do you mean a personal relationship on some level, or professional? It requires some measure of intelligence and willingness to spend the time, as well as trustworthiness, and we have no-one with all three among our friends or relatives.
Protracted is in the eye of the beholder, I suppose. One of my co-workers was still working their way through the last lingering parts of probate 18 months after his last parent’s death and they did not leave a complicated estate.
Note that this was in CA, which is apparently notorious for the length of the probate process - 9 to 18 months is pretty standard. So it may well depend on where you reside. But IMHO if you’re in CA and have an estate of size large enough to require probate (very small estates do not), get a trust 
.
This. My father had one, and it was vital. We have one. On the other hand, my father-in-law lived in Pennsylvania, and did not have a trust. My wife had no problem closing his estate when he died. Being an only child probably helped.
So it strongly depends on where you live. I have no idea of the situation in Montana.
I will reiterate that the real value of a trust is for the grantor, not the beneficiaries. Being able to have your trustee first begin watching, then gradually begin handling, your affairs without the need to go through complicated banking changes at the time you’re slipping is enormously valuable.
If you have the good fortune to drop dead (or be killed) while hale and hearty, well bravo for you. But for the 80%+ of USAians whom Fate does not so grace, the reality is you’re going to spend some time unwilling and/or unable to adequately manage your own administration.
Failing to create a plan for that phase of your life is planning to fail at it. Which is, IMO, super-dumb.
My husband and I did a Deed Upon Death. That means when the last of us dies, the house goes immediately to our daughter and late son’s kids. We put them as beneficiaries on all of our bank and investment accounts. It cost us under $700.
As I understand it, the important thing is to have an actual will that’s up to date and drafted by an actual lawyer and in line with the laws of your state. And then once that person dies, re-engage a lawyer (ideally the same one) to help with the probate process.
Ideally they’ll also help you on the front end to do stuff like modify the bank accounts, deeds, and so forth to help you avoid having to go through probate on the items where that can be accomplished. A good estate lawyer will anyway.
But there’s no way to avoid the probate process outright. Regardless of what else you do, your estate still has to undergo that process, and it’s a lot more complicated if someone dies intestate, or their will is not up to date (i.e. there are new grandchildren, property has changed, and so forth). All that gets worked out, but it’s more trouble than an up to date will.
Again, a good estate lawyer can help with whether a trust is right or not.