Will My Revocable Living Trust Avoid Probate? It Depends.
If you have established a revocable living trust (which we will refer to simply as a trust), congratulations! You are on the right track in creating a comprehensive estate plan. However, you are only halfway there. Many people believe that because they took the time to create a trust, their estate will automatically avoid probate, and they will not have to take any additional steps. Unfortunately, this assumption creates a false sense of security.
The key to probate avoidance is ensuring that, when you pass away, there are no accounts or property in your sole name without a current beneficiary designation. Taking this one step further, ensuring that the provisions of the trust you created will govern the management and ultimate distribution of your accounts and property after you pass away requires that you have either properly transferred ownership of your accounts and property to your trust or named your trust as the beneficiary.