How Much Does a Living Trust Cost?

You have spent years of your time and effort in establishing a successful business. You’ve poured your heart and soul into becoming a success, and as a result, you’ve amassed a ton of money along the way. But what do you do when a frivolous lawsuit jeopardizes all that you’ve built in life? 

Or maybe you are anticipating a nasty divorce that could result in losing much of – if not everything – you’ve worked for. These things are more common than you might think, and you can easily find yourself in such a situation and lose a lot of money.

That’s why you need Dominion. We are a team of specialized lawyers and financial advisors who focus on protecting the wealth of HNWIs and families. The way we approach asset protection is different from all the rest.

We are aware of the unique difficulties you encounter as an HNWI, so we use proven tactics to guarantee that your wealth is insulated from life’s storms and remains yours to keep.

Naturally, you have questions, like what’s the cost of establishing a living trust? We take a deep dive into living trusts by examining the factors that influence their cost and help you make the right call to secure your financial future.

Overview of Living Trusts

A living trust is a legal agreement that enables you to transfer ownership of your property – houses, cars, money, other properties, and the like – to a trust during your lifetime. It’s something you develop as a means of owning and managing your property.

You have a good deal of management rights over these assets during your lifetime, and in your death, the trust works to transfer your assets to the beneficiaries you have chosen privately.

Perhaps you have a question in your mind right now, why should someone consider a living trust? Well, consider this: a living trust will also allow you to bypass the sometimes lengthy and very public probate system.

Probate can mean that your assets are frozen in the court for months or even years, and this means that your wealth will not reach the intended beneficiaries for a very long time. A living trust avoids probate, making it possible to transfer your property to the beneficiaries quickly. 

Now, you might be wondering, why bother with a living trust? Well, consider this: a living trust helps you avoid the often lengthy and public process of probate. Probate can tie up your assets in court for months or even years, delaying the distribution of your wealth to your loved ones. A living trust bypasses probate, ensuring a swift and efficient transfer of your estate.

Also, a living trust do not disclose information to the public as compared to a will. When wills are in the process of probate, the information contained in it becomes available to the public, while information about living trusts is private. This is especially so where the client is a high-net-worth individual who would want to keep his or her affairs private. 

Components of Living Trusts

You’ll find three main players in living trusts, each being a vital cog in the wheels of asset protection and estate planning. These players consist of:

• The Grantor: That’s you – the one who forms the trust and then moves assets into it.
• The Trustee: The person or company in charge of administering your trust assets and acting in accordance with your instructions. For this reason, you can act as your trustee while you are alive and choose a successor trustee who will replace you after you die. 
• The Beneficiaries: These are the people or organizations that you want to give the trust’s assets to. 

To put it plainly, a living trust is a legal tool that enables you to plan and organize the administration of your assets while you are alive, but also how your assets will be passed on when you die.

So, What’s the Cost of a Living Trust?

In general, you’re probably looking at a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars. But it’s important to note that when analyzing the cost of estate planning, a living trust is but one aspect in a sea of others. Anyone who thinks that a living trust will take care of ALL the estate planning requirements is highly mistaken.

You need an impenetrable plan that’s designed to protect your legacy, and that requires a strategy with lots of moving parts. To that point, working with experienced professionals is paramount. Estate planning is a complex animal, and you’ve really got to be on your toes to ensure your money is safe. Even seemingly minor missteps can lead to major financial consequences down the line.

As a HNWI or UHNWI, this is unacceptable. Your wealth isn’t to be trifled with, and anything that could potentially expose it to outside sources is a red flag that you need better, more secure protection for your wealth.

You Have Options

For a few hundred dollars, DIY online services may seem attractive due to the fact that they help to save money, but they often come with hidden risks. For example, they frequently present general forms that probably won’t be very helpful to your financial future.

They might be missing some very important aspects, or you might make mistakes that cause your estate plan to be invalid. But at Dominion, we believe that you deserve more than a generic, generalized approach to your legacy.

In fact, everyone does. It’s just a sad truth that so many people receive estate planning and asset protection advice that’s designed to serve everyone rather than the individual.

At Dominion, we can appreciate the many aspects of estate planning, especially when it comes to wealthy clients and families. Our team knows that each client is different and has distinct requirements and objectives.

That’s why we harness a special approach for every client to guarantee that their wealth will be preserved and their desires will be followed to the “T.” We believe that real peace of mind can be obtained only when you are sure that your affairs are in good hands. That’s precisely what Dominion does for our clients.

How Does a Living Trust Compare to a Comprehensive Asset Protection Strategy?

Living trusts absolutely have benefits that are a great fit in estate planning. That said, we wouldn’t be doing our job if we didn’t articulate that they come with some drawbacks, especially in the grand scheme of asset protection.

A living trust mostly aims at avoiding probate and the management of the assets you have left behind for your beneficiaries. But is that enough on its own? No, because as a HNWI, you’re not getting the impenetrable protection you need to protect your assets from legal claims and other related risks. It’s that simple.

Taking Control

One of the most important advantages of a living trust is that you can retain so much control over the assets. This control, which is certainly beneficial in managing your wealth during your lifetime, can also expose your assets to creditors. If a creditor gets a judgment against you, they can get to the assets held in your living trust. That’s a problem.

You need a more enhanced level of protection, in which case, the best solution is an asset protection trust. The major draw here is that an asset protection trust can never be changed, and this is because you give up ownership of the assets to the trustee. 

This split ownership presents an almost impenetrable wall between you and outside sources, like creditors and judgments. This is the kind of protection you need when you’re a HNWI or UHNWI.

Of course, the choice between a living trust and an asset protection trust is a decision best made based on your specific needs and the extent of protection you need. At Dominion, we help you determine the best course of action pertaining to protecting your assets.

Our approach to your financial situation is one that’s personal and compassionate, the goal being to help you arrange your assets in a manner that’s most beneficial to your legacy.

Moreover, we don’t rely on any single strategy. As we mentioned previously, a living trust is certainly helpful, but it’s not the only solution. You need other strategies in place, as well, and that’s what we specialize in at Dominion.

We use a combination of approaches to ensure you’ve got the best protection in place – period. Our team works with you to find out what that entails, then we get to work making it happen. That’s the Dominion difference.

Dominion Is Your Trusted Partner for Secure Estate Planning

As a HNWI, you have needs that aren’t typical to most people. We understand those needs at Dominion. It’s our mission to ensure that our clients receive superior asset protection to ensure the security of their wealth and legacies.

At a time when it’s more important than ever to protect what’s yours, there’s no room for error here. Your wealth demands the finest qualified attention available. And that’s exactly what you get when you partner with Dominion.