Trusts & Avoiding Probate
How to pass assets without probate: living trusts, irrevocable and testamentary trusts, special-needs and spendthrift trusts, transfer-on-death deeds, life estates, and what a trustee actually does. Trust law varies by state.
All Trusts & Avoiding Probate guides
- Life Estates: Keeping a Home and Passing It On
A life estate lets you use your home for life and transfer it to heirs automatically at death — no probate required. How it works and what to watch for.
- Revocable Living Trusts: What They Do (and Don't Do)
A revocable living trust avoids probate and helps manage incapacity — but it offers no automatic creditor shield or estate tax reduction.
- Special Needs Trusts: Protecting a Disabled Beneficiary
A special needs trust lets a disabled beneficiary receive an inheritance without losing Medicaid or SSI eligibility. Here is how they work.
- What Does a Trustee Do? Duties and Responsibilities
A trustee manages trust assets for beneficiaries, bound by a fiduciary duty of loyalty, prudence, and impartiality. Here is what that means in practice.
- Transfer-on-Death Deeds: Passing a Home Without Probate
Learn how a transfer-on-death deed lets you pass a home directly to a beneficiary at death, bypassing probate, and what your state requires.
- Wills vs. Trusts: Which One Do You Need?
Compare wills and revocable living trusts: how probate, privacy, incapacity planning, and cost differ — and why many people benefit from having both.
- Spendthrift Trusts: Shielding an Inheritance From Creditors
A spendthrift trust shields a beneficiary's inheritance from their creditors and their own financial mistakes until assets are distributed.
- How to Fund a Living Trust (and Why It Matters)
A living trust only avoids probate for assets actually in it. This guide explains how to fund a trust properly, asset by asset.
- Can a Trust Be Contested?
Yes, trusts can be challenged in court — but only on specific legal grounds, by someone with legal standing, and within strict state-law deadlines.
- Irrevocable Trusts: How They Work and Why People Use Them
An irrevocable trust removes assets from your control in exchange for planning benefits a revocable trust cannot offer. How they work and when they fit.
- Testamentary Trusts: Trusts Created by Your Will
A testamentary trust is created by your will and activates at death, letting you control how assets are managed for heirs over time.
- What Assets Skip Probate? Beneficiary Designations, POD, TOD, and Joint Property
Life insurance, retirement accounts, POD, TOD, and joint tenancy all skip probate. Learn how each works and why keeping designations current matters.
- Do You Have to Go Through Probate? Ways to Avoid It
Many assets skip probate entirely. Learn how beneficiary designations, POD/TOD accounts, joint tenancy, and living trusts let assets pass without court.