Living Trusts for Everyone: Why a Will Is Not the Way to Avoid Probate, Protect Heirs, and Settle Estates

This guide explains the benefits of a living trust in simple, specific terms and shows how to set up a loved one's trust with no lawyers and no expense.
Wills benefit lawyers. Trusts benefit the clients. Too often lawyers sell wills to clients only to sit back and wait to sell their probate services to their clients' heirs. Ronald Farrington Sharp describes the best way to handle modern estate planning and details the many advantages trusts have over wills in not only eliminating probate but in also protecting your assets for your heirs. Sharp explains why legal services are not needed to do the clerical work in settling a trust after death. This updated edition includes new information on an array of subjects, including:

Elimination of the federal estate tax for most estates due to increased exemption amounts

Online assets

The use of passwords, usernames, and websites

Keeping trustees honest and the process of removing trustees for malfeasance

Forms for simplifying the planning process

Strategies to lower attorneys' fees

With no legal jargon, just step-by-step instructions and sample form letters, Living Trusts for Everyone takes the mystery out of the process of setting up a trust.
"Sharp makes a reasoned and strong case for the use of trusts as a complete alternative for wills. For roughly the cost of a lunch, Living Trusts for Everyone can . . . equip the average American with enough thoughtful questions to ensure that his or her lawyer is doing all that s/he can to protect that person's assets. For that alone, it belongs on your reading list." —New York Journal of Books
"If you want to know a good deal about estate planning and trusts but don't want a four-hundred-page boring book to read, I highly, highly recommend getting this one. It's short, to-the-point, and very informative." —FreeMoneyFinance.com
"Ronald Sharp explains trusts in clear and easy-to-understand language, including one truth most lawyers don't want to admit: a trust is often better than a will and less costly!" —Lonnie Mclane, Estate & Tax Consultants, LLC