Planning for the transfer of your estate can be a very important step to take in order to help ease burdens on your family and friends and ensure that your desires are carried out upon your death or incapacity. Preparing a Will is one method of doing so, but can have significant shortcomings in comparison to a revocable living trust.
There are many advantages that can result from creating a revocable living trust, some of which include probate court avoidance, asset protection for your heirs, federal estate tax benefits, and ensuring your assets benefit your intended heirs.

Probate Court Avoidance

When you create a Will, although the Will allows you to name beneficiaries of your estate, any assets owned in your individual name that does not otherwise name a pay-on-death (POD) beneficiary are automatically subject to probate court proceedings and require that your estate be administered through probate court.
On the other hand, when you create a revocable living trust, any assets owned by the revocable living trust at the time of your death are not automatically subject to probate court proceedings and can be administered privately and separate from probate court. In addition to avoiding costly and timely court proceedings, a major benefit to probate court avoidance is the ability to provide uninterrupted investment management by not having assets frozen in court proceedings.

Asset Protection for Heirs

A Nevada revocable living trust can be structured in a way that provides creditor protection for your heirs following your death. Upon the death of the settlor(s) (creator(s)) of a revocable living trust, the trust automatically becomes irrevocable and cannot be changed. Nevada trusts can last up to 365 years to provide long term wealth preservation and planning for numerous generations.

Establishing a revocable living trust in Nevada can reduce the risk of your heir’s creditors gaining access to the trust’s assets. Nevada has strong case law precedent in favor of upholding trusts for creditor protection, allowing for added wealth preservation to ensure your wealth is retained for the benefit of your heirs. In Nevada, this protection can extend to scenarios such as bankruptcy or divorce proceedings of your heirs.

Note that a revocable living trust does not provide asset protection for the settlor(s) of the trust. With respect to the settlor(s), owning assets in a revocable living trust is equivalent to owning assets in your individual name from a creditor standpoint.

Federal Estate Tax Benefits

Nevada trusts can be structured in a way that takes advantage of certain federal estate tax benefits to potentially reduce or eliminate federal estate taxes and/or federal generation-skipping transfer (GST) taxes, allowing many generations to enjoy gifted assets free from estate and/or GST taxation.

Ensuring Your Assets Benefit Your Intended Heirs

A revocable living trust can provide restrictions on asset control and distributions to ensure assets are preserved for future intended recipients. Limitations are commonly utilized in scenarios such as placing limitations on distributions that can be made to your heirs to prevent frivolous waste of assets if there is a concern of heirs acting as spendthrifts. Further, another common scenario would be placing limitations on control a surviving spouse may have in a mixed family to ensure that a decedent’s (deceased person) children cannot be disinherited by the surviving spouse.

A Will is Still a Necessity with a Revocable Living Trust

A Will remains a necessary document in addition to and in conjunction with a revocable living trust as part of a complete estate plan. When you create a revocable living trust, you transfer your assets into the name of the trust. This process is commonly referred to as “funding” the trust.

In the event you have assets that do not get funded to your revocable living trust during your lifetime, said assets will have to pass through your Will and potentially be subject to probate proceedings. In these circumstances, your Will names the revocable living trust as the beneficiary of your estate to ensure that all assets are funneled into the trust. This type of Will is known as a “pour-over” Will.