real estate revocable trust

If you are a new homeowner, congratulations!  Maybe someone recommended to you recently that now that you own a home, it is beneficial to put your real estate in a revocable living trust and you’re wondering why.  Read on! 

By putting real estate in trust, clients ensure that their home will be transferred to their beneficiaries without an executor having to go to probate court. This is what would happen if the property were not held in a trust. I have seen too many properties lost in a tax sale or foreclosure because it was not transferred into trust, and the executors didn’t have the attorney fees to hire an attorney to go to probate court to sell the property. 

Creating a Revocable Trust For Real Estate

When you create a revocable living trust with our office, we will make sure to deed any real estate you own into the trust after you sign it.  With respect to managing the property, such as refinancing or selling, you will continue to sign documents the same way you did before your real estate was in trust, but you will put “Trustee” after your name.   

So if Cindy Client comes to us to create an estate plan, and she forms the Cindy Client Revocable Trust dated April 1, 2023, we will draw up a deed transferring her home “From Cindy Client to Cindy Client, Trustee of the Cindy Client Revocable Trust dated April 1, 2023.”   

One advantage for married couples transferring property to their trust is that they maintain the benefits of “tenancy by the entirety.”  Tenancy by the entirety is a way for married couples to own property and protect the property from either of their creditors.  When there is a judgment or lien against one spouse, if a married couple owns property as tenants by the entirety, the judgment creditor cannot force the spouse to sell the real estate to satisfy the judgment, because the innocent spouse is protected from their spouse’s creditors. 

If you own real estate in your name, and you would like to work with us to transfer it into a revocable trust, contact us here or call us today at Ph: (312) 583-9430.