The Living Trust Advisor Everything You Need to Know About Your Living Trust

by Condon, Jeffrey L.

• ISBN13: 9780470261187
• ISBN10: 0470261188
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-10-06
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

Praise for The Living Trust Advisor"The Living Trust Advisor is a necessary survival guide in the inheritance arena for every American in these turbulent economic times." -Congressman Thaddeus McCotter"Living trusts can be the most important part of an estate plan-saving time and money by reducing or eliminating estate taxes and by avoiding probate. For all those who have or are considering a living trust, The Living Trust Advisor is an invaluable source and an essential tool for any estate plan. Your beneficiaries will thank you." -Angelique M. Neal,former attorney with the IRS,Office of Chief Counsel, Los Angeles"In The Living Trust Advisor Jeffrey Condon not only shows how to make the baffling world of trusts work for the average person, but gives invaluable advice on navigating the complex web of family emotions that inevitably come to the surface in estate planning. His expert advice and guidance should be on the bookshelf of anyone who needs more than just a basic will." -Brian J. O'Connor,Personal Finance Editor, The Detroit News"Jeffrey Condon bonds with the reader on a level that encourages our complete trust in his trust instructions. In this book, he wisely walks readers through all of the pitfalls, tax implications, changes that may occur, and subsequent legal implications. The Living Trust Advisor is a fine and entertaining read as well as an indispensable resource for everyone in need of advice and compassion in making a will or a trust." -Grady Harp,Reviewer for Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Powells, Reuters, USA Today, and Blogging Authors, Author of War Songs, and contributor of essays to museum catalogues

Author Biography

Jeffrey L. Condon is an attorney at Condon & Condon in Santa Monica, California, where he has practiced in trusts, estates, and family inheritance planning for twenty years. With his late father, Gerald M. Condon, he is the coauthor of Beyond the Grave: The Right Way and the Wrong Way of Leaving Money to Your Children (and Others), which is the bestselling inheritance planning book in American publishing history, and was called "the best estate planning book in America" by the Wall Street Journal. He is a frequent public speaker and commentator, having appeared on CNN and CNBC, and has conducted seminars for a multitude of organizations and charities, including Merrill Lynch, Charles Schwab, Washington Mutual Bank, and American Insurance Company.

Table of Contents

Pregame Warm-Up Or Read This Before You Read This Book	p. xiii
Acknowledgments	p. xxi
The First Quarter: Establishing Your Living Trust	p. 1
How You Established Your Living Trust Without a Clear Understanding of What It Is and How It Works Or You Don't Know What You Don't Know about Your Living Trust	p. 3
What Does the Living Trust Do, and How Does It Do It? Or The Best Explanation of the Living Trust You Will Ever Get	p. 10
Do You Really Need a Living Trust? Or Don't Let Someone Sell You Something You Don't Need	p. 14
Establishing Your Living Trust Or No Better Way to Get Started ... Than to Get Started	p. 21
Who Should You Select as the Lifetime Agent of Your Living Trust? Or If You Become Incapacitated, Will Your Lifetime Agent Manage Your Living Trust for Your Benefit ... or for His?	p. 31
You Can Select Your Children as Your After-Death Agent, but Will They Carry Out Your Living Trust's Inheritance Instructions? Or "That Was Our Parents' Wish, but It Ain't Our Wish"	p. 41
The Second Quarter: Living with Your Living Trust during the Lifetimes of You and Your Spouse	p. 51
Functions of Your Living Trust While Both You and Your Spouse Are Alive Or Don't Quite Forget about Your Living Trust After You Have Thrown It into Your Safe-Deposit Box	p. 53
The Five Concerns about the Real Estate You Transferred to Your Living Trust Or You Still Own Your House!	p. 65
Should You Tell Your Children about Your Living Trust? Or Don't Dismiss the Chance to Have a Family Inheritance Meeting-Especially If the Lawyer Won't Charge You	p. 73
The Third Quarter: Living with Your Living Trust after the Death of Your Spouse	p. 81
Will You Divert Your Deceased Spouse's Half of the Living Trust Assets from Your Offspring? Or How to Make Your Children Fret and Hope That You Will Do the Right Thing	p. 83
The Power to Change Your Deceased Spouse's Inheritance Instructions ... or Not! Or How to Lord It over Your Children with Threats of Changing Your Living Trust	p. 89
Dealing with Your Living Trust If You Remarry Or The Battle Royal: Your Second Spouse versus Your First Children	p. 94
Splitting the Living Trust Assets After Your Spouse Dies, Preparing Your Spouse's Estate Tax Return, and Other Tax Stuff That You Would Rather Just Ignore Or As Much as You Want to, Don't Skip This Chapter! To Prevent Estate Taxes after Your Death, You Must Deal with Estate Tax Matters after Your Spouse's Death	p. 99
The Fourth Quarter: Dying with Your Living Trust	p. 113
Distribution of Your Living Trust After Both You and Your Spouse Are Dead Or The Inheritance Arena Is Not for the Fainthearted	p. 115
Don't Intentionally Leave Your Children Unequal Inheritances Or So What If One Needs It More Than the Other?	p. 119
The Accidental Unequal Inheritance Or If You Think You Have Treated Your Children Equally by Leaving Them Equal Inheritances, I Have Some News for You!	p. 124
Don't Make a Child Who Owes You Money a Debtor to Your Other Children Or An Unforgiven and Unpaid Loan to a Child Can Wreak Havoc After Your Death	p. 131
Do Not Leave Your Child an Outright Inheritance Or I'm Not Kidding! Don't Leave Your Child an Outright Inheritance	p. 138
Using Your Living Trust to Force Your Child into a Conventional Lifestyle Or If the Twig Is Bent, Will Force Do Anything to Straighten It Out?	p. 167
The Success of the Third Party Irrevocable Protection Trust (PUPPET) Depends on Whom You've Selected as the Third Party Or Try Not to Appoint One Private Person to Hold and Manage Money for Another Private Person	p. 172
Who Are Your Grandchildren? Or Do You Really Want Your Living Trust Assets to Ultimately Wind Up with Your Son's Second Wife's Kids from Her First Marriage?	p. 179
The IRS Is Back! And This Time, It's for Real! Or "Sorry about Your Parents' Deaths. That Will Be $200,000, Please."	p. 184
Who Pays the Estate Tax? Or Don't Make One Person Pay the Estate Tax on Living Trust Gifts That Go to Another Person	p. 196
Postgame: Review and Lessons Learned	p. 205
Question and Answer Time! Or Take the Opportunity to Ask This Expensive Lawyer Your Questions ... at No Charge	p. 207
A Random Sampling of Cautionary Tales from the Inheritance Arena Or Read about, and Learn from, My Previous Mistakes and the Mistakes of My Clients	p. 222
About the Author Or An Invitation from the Author to Contact Him at No Charge	p. 243
Index	p. 247
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