The two primary uses of an Oklahoma Revocable Trust

The Oklahoma revocable living trust is a fairly common estate planning tool.

I have written about using a trust to protect and plan for your family several times such as here, here and over there. The more I have worked with Oklahoma trusts and seen how my clients use them, I have come to see primarily used to accomplish two things:

The Probate avoidance Trust

The goal of the probate avoidance trust is to get all your property into it, then when you pass away, the trust passes all of your property to your heirs with no strings attached, without your heirs being required to file a probate case in court. Instead, the trust distributes your property to the people you choose.  When all the property has been distributed by the trust, the trust reaches the end of its life and is terminated. The Oklahoma probate-avoidance trust functions similar to an Oklahoma last will and testament, except with the trust, your heirs avoid the court-supervised probate case.

The Legacy Trust

The goal of what I call the legacy trust is to get all your property into your trust and when you pass away distribute all of your property to your heirs, over an extended period of time and possibly with some qualifying instructions (Note:  If this type of trust is properly created and managed, it to should help your heirs avoid probate). The legacy trust typically continues on for a lengthy period of time after you pass away doing things such as:

  • Providing for your children’s education
  • Protecting your children’s inheritance from their creditors
  • Gradually providing financial assistance on terms you design

 

The right trust for you and indeed even IF a trust is right for you is something I am happy to talk with you about.

Posted by Shawn Roberts

On this blog, I write about and try to answer practical Oklahoma legal questions. My focus and most experience is in estate planning and business issues including Oklahoma non-compete law. I make a living as an attorney in the law firm I founded, Shawn J. Roberts, P.C. in Oklahoma City. I live in Edmond with my wife Amy and my two children, Sam (19) and David (11). We live precisely in the path of where the "wind comes sweeping down the plains."