Estate Planning is one of the things that most people prefer to avoid. It is just not pleasant to think about a time when we will not be here to enjoy our families and friends. As a result, most of us have not done anything at all to prepare for the distribution of our assets upon our death. As many as 70% of us do not even have a will, and another 27% of us ONLY have a will. If you fall into one of these groups, your estate is a potential Treasure Trove for the legal profession. That is, of course, unless you know these best kept secrets:

1. If you do not have a will, the State of Oklahoma has written one for you, and they will decide who will administer your estate and who will be your heirs. If they cannot find anyone on their list, they will just escheat you out of your money!
2. If you do not have a will, or even if you do have a will, your Estate must go through probate. A will does not avoid probate, it guarantees it. Just consider your will as an engraved invitation to probate court!
3. Probate provides no privacy in the settlement of your affairs. It is a public record and mandates public notification before assets can be distributed to heirs.
4. Probate is traumatic. It forces your family to go into court and fight with a complicated judicial procedure at a time of great emotional distress.
5. Probate is time consuming. It requires many months, even years, to settle an estate through the courts.
6. Probate is not easily controlled. Without a will, state law governs. Even with a will, the judge can decide that part of it, or even all of it is invalid.
7. Probate is expensive. Attorney fees alone can average 6% or more of the total value of your assets.
8. A will does not help if you become mentally disabled. Your family must go to probate court to get permission to use family assets for your care. Then they have to account to the court every year for how they spent the money.
9. Avoiding probate by using joint tenancy or by "putting everything in the kids' names" can create tremendous legal and tax problems. You could face major difficulties like frozen assets if a spouse becomes mentally disabled, estate taxes and exposure to your kids' liabilities should they be involved in a lawsuit, bankruptcy, tax audit or divorce.
10. Probate can be avoided with a Living Trust!

A trust is just a contract between you and a trustee. A living trust is a trust you set up while you are alive. Most living trusts are revocable, which means you can change your mind about anything in it at any time. And, since you and your spouse are the trustees, you will continue to make all of the decisions just like you do now. You are simply making a deal with yourself to take care of your things for your own benefit for the rest of your life.

The beauty of it is that when you or your spouse can no longer make decisions, you have named a successor trustee to take over. The successor trustee is legally obligated to use your assets to take care of you if you are alive, or to distribute your assets just as you specified in your trust. All of this can be done for a fraction of the cost of a probate.

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