Living trust topics, in plain English.
Seven guides covering everything from the basics of what a trust does to what your successor trustee will need on day one. Free to read — just sign in with your email.
Black Family Wealth Protection
A practical estate-planning playbook for Black families — protecting home equity, resolving heirs' property, navigating Medicaid estate recovery, claiming property-tax exemptions, and preventing the wealth leaks that disproportionately drain Black estates.
- Heirs' property — the leading cause of Black land loss
- Medicaid estate recovery and how to protect the family home
- Step-up in basis and the biggest tax break you may not know
- Property-tax exemptions that many families never claim
Digital Legacy and Online Privacy
Digital assets — accounts, crypto, photos, subscriptions, password vaults — outlive you and create real problems if no one can reach them. A practical plan for access, transfer, and graceful deletion without exposing secrets.
- Google IAM, Apple Legacy Contact, and Facebook memorialization
- The 2FA problem — why your password isn't enough
- Crypto seed phrases and how to pass them safely
- Cloud storage, email, and subscription cleanup plan
How to Fund Your Trust
A trust controls what it owns and nothing else. This walks through funding each major asset class, the timing, the documents, and the common mistakes that leave assets stranded.
- Asset-by-asset funding playbook (real estate, accounts, insurance)
- What NOT to retitle into the trust
- The 12-week funding calendar
- Common mistakes that leave assets stranded outside the trust
Post-Death Trust Administration
A practical, sequenced guide to what a successor trustee actually does in the first year after death — the notices, the inventory, the taxes, the distributions, the accounting, and the legal risks that catch new trustees off guard.
- First-30-day trustee checklist after death
- The notice, inventory, debt-payment, and tax sequence
- How to distribute assets without personal liability
- Common mistakes that result in trustee removal or lawsuits
Revocable vs. Irrevocable Trusts
The two main trust types, what each one actually does, when to use each, and why the wrong choice creates problems that take years and lawyers to undo.
- Revocable vs. irrevocable — when each one is the right tool
- ILITs, MAPTs, SLATs, and special needs trusts explained
- The wrong-choice patterns and how to avoid them
- Decision tree for your situation
The ABCs of Living Trusts
A plain-English starting point for what a living trust is, who participates, how it works during life and after death, and why funding matters more than the trust document itself.
- What a living trust actually does (and what it doesn't)
- The four roles: grantor, trustee, successor, beneficiary
- How a trust works during life vs. after death
- Why funding matters more than the trust document itself
What Trusts Cannot Do
Trusts are powerful but oversold. A clear-eyed reality check on the myths, the real costs, the family conflict patterns, and the situations where a trust is the wrong tool entirely.
- 7 common trust myths — and what the reality actually is
- Real cost breakdown: setup, ongoing, and administration
- Situations where a trust is the wrong tool entirely
- When a simpler plan beats a complex one
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