When you pass away, you can no longer own property, so your assets must be retitled. With your trust-based estate plan, you avoid probate by transferring your assets into your trust during your lifetime. Your trustee can then manage and distribute your assets without going through probate. By naming a Successor Trustee, you centralize control over your assets and ensure your affairs—such as paying debts, taxes, and expenses—are handled smoothly. Your plan also lets you distribute gifts immediately or hold them in trust until certain conditions are met, use staggered distributions to protect beneficiaries, and include a pour-over will to name guardians for your children and transfer any remaining assets into your trust. 

Your comprehensive trust-based estate plan brings together several tools to manage your assets, healthcare, wishes, and guardianship effectively. Here’s how they work for you:

Your financial power of attorney lets someone you trust handle your finances if you can’t, ensuring your bills, investments, and expenses are managed without court involvement.
Your patient advocate designation allows someone to make medical decisions for you, making sure your healthcare preferences are honored.
Your trust holds and manages your assets during your life and after your death, avoiding probate and allowing your trustee to distribute assets directly to your beneficiaries.
Your pour-over will transfers any assets not already in your trust into it after your death, ensures your trust’s instructions are followed, and lets you name guardians for your children.
Your funeral representative designation ensures your chosen representative carries out your funeral and burial or cremation wishes.

Together, these tools protect you during your lifetime and provide a smooth, coordinated plan for managing your finances, healthcare, guardianship, and final wishes after your death.