Early in September, Ancestry.com launched a vast new program in which they made 170 million pages of probate documents and wills available online. If you’re a member of the site, you can now search through these documents and uncover the personal details of all the estates within.
All of this might get you thinking about your own estate planning. Maybe you’d rather your plans not be made available somewhere down the road. Maybe you value privacy.
Unfortunately, if you’ve made no plans or if you have only a will with no trust, your estate will likely have to go through the public probate process. But don’t fear! There is one way to avoid probate and keep your plans private, and that is by establishing a trust and correctly funding it.
If you’re interested in keeping your affairs to yourself and privacy is important to you, then a trust is the way to go. And that’s just one of the many benefits of estate planning with trusts.
You can learn more about how a trust might benefit you and your family by contacting us to schedule a Family Wealth Planning Session, where we can identify the best strategies for you and your family.
