Revocable living trusts are an increasingly popular estate planning tool for married couples. They can be extremely useful for incapacity planning, probate avoidance (including the ability to avoid probate in other states so long as real estate in another state has been properly transferred to the revocable living trust), asset protection, and privacy. Depending on the married couple’s goals and circumstances, an estate plan can include either a joint revocable trust or separate trusts for each spouse. Both options offer advantages and disadvantages. Listed below are several client scenarios that explore whether a joint trust or individual trusts are better. 

Many of our clients live in an increasingly mobile world, owning property or assets in multiple countries, or maintaining dual citizenship. They may also be United States (US) expatriates or a US person married to a non-citizen spouse. The estate planning process for these clients is likely to be more complex because each country has different laws or statutes regarding wills, trusts, and taxes. As a result, it is imperative that estate planning practitioners have a basic knowledge of the applicable US and foreign laws and rules, as well as commonly used estate planning strategies.  It is not enough to assume that a will or trust created in the US will be honored in another country. 

Congratulations! You’ve created a comprehensive estate plan for your client. Now that all documents are signed and handed over to the client, does that mark the end of an estate planner’s job? According to the book Estate Planning for the Post-Transition Period, the majority of estate plans that fail do so because of non-legal/non-technical aspects. These errors have nothing to do with your perfectly drafted estate plan. Rather, they are issues related to lack of communication and inaction on the part of your clients’ family. Today, the most common reasons for failure are: