King Fear has put many of his assets into his own Living Trust. As we explained last week, he still has full control over all of those assets, because he is the named trustee who manages his assets and makes all decisions about them.
Plus, he is the beneficiary of the trust, which means all the assets in it are there for his benefit. But, as we know from his secret decision to leave almost nothing to two of his three daughters, King Fear is very worried about losing control in his life.
His attorney had already explained that he could change his trust anytime by going through certain formalities. But King Fear needed more – he just had to know whether he could “kill” his trust if he wanted to later. His trust is fully revocable, which means he does have that ultimate control. He can revoke, or cancel, the trust any time he wants to.
To do that, he would destroy the original signed trust and then work to change the title on all those assets back to his own name. That would restore his status as owner of the assets as himself rather than as trustee. It would not increase or lessen his power over his property. But knowing he could go back comforts King Fear.
Most estate plans allow for plenty of changes if you want them later. After all, life is uncertain and throws us plenty of curves. For help creating your own estate plan, please call my office at (815) 436-1996 for an appointment.
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