Speaker: Maritess Bott
Maritess:
Hi, my name is Maritess Bott of Bott & Associates. I’m here to answer the question, what is the difference between a will and a living trust?
So, people ask me that all the time and it’s definitely on the internet. People ask that question and basically, the difference between the will and the trust is the main reason to create the trust in addition to the will, is to avoid probate. Okay, so a will allows us to tell your family where your assets are going which is great. But in Illinois if you have at least a hundred thousand dollars of assets in your name and you die, we go to the lovely court process of probate. That court process can take a year, two years, three years- however long it takes, it can cost your family lots of money. Three to five thousand dollars just to start and can go upwards to ten thousand, twelve thousand dollars just because people are fighting. Imagine that- family and money causes people to fight. So probate is not something you want your family to go through and if you want your family to just receive the assets quickly, immediately, without having to go through courts, that’s when they create that living trust.
So the living trust is a great tool, it’s a very common tool. You don’t need millions of dollars to create it and it’s good to protect your family from probate, as well as a myriad of other protections that we can build into your trust.
If you have other questions feel free to give us a call, email email us, check us out on Facebook, and on our website. And we can answer those questions for you. Again I am Maritess Bott of Bott & Associates.
