Revocable Living Trust Questions

Revocable Living Trust Questions

"lha"	6/5/2005 8:04:33 PM
To all, Without a lawyer, can a Revocable Living Trust (Do it by yourself) be valid or legitimate? I'm planning to copy some samples from the public library and complete them with notary pulic signature, but not sure if this is sufficient for legal documents. Can someone shed light on this for me? Thanks. Max



"Daniel R. Reitman"	6/6/2005 4:29:43 PM
On Sun, 05 Jun 2005 20:04:33 -0400, "lha" <lha_in@yahoo.com> wrote: To all, Without a lawyer, can a Revocable Living Trust (Do it by yourself) be valid or legitimate? I'm planning to copy some samples from the public library and complete them with notary pulic signature, but not sure if this is sufficient for legal documents. Can someone shed light on this for me? Thanks. It _may_ be valid, depending on whether the form of the trust complies with local law and whether all of the steps necessary to create a trust are complied with. It is probably _not_ advisable. Daniel Reitman



"Stuart A. Bronstein"	6/6/2005 4:29:42 PM
"lha" <lha_in@yahoo.com> wrote: Without a lawyer, can a Revocable Living Trust (Do it by yourself) be valid or legitimate? I'm planning to copy some samples from the public library and complete them with notary pulic signature, but not sure if this is sufficient for legal documents. It is certainly legal for a revocable living trust to be created without the assistance of a lawyer. The question is, is it a smart thing to do? If your situation is completely routine and there is nothing that is out of the ordinary, you may get what you want. But estate plannning can be very complex, and may not do what you want or expect it to do without knowing exactly what it means, and how to say what you want it to mean. I've even seen lawyers screw these things up. So be careful. Stu



Paul Cassel	6/6/2005 4:29:45 PM
lha wrote: To all, Without a lawyer, can a Revocable Living Trust (Do it by yourself) be valid or legitimate? Yes. The lawyer does not have any effect on the validity of the document. The lawyer's role is in making sure the structure of the trust is proper and all reasonably forseeable issues are addressed. If you are sure that you can do this on your own (few can) then your trust will be as valid as one drawn up by a lawyer. Note that lawyers spend years in school, more years in practice and then sometimes take additional estate and trust training to get where they are. If your estate is large enough for a trust, then, IMO, it's large enough to justify an attorney - even if to review your work and make suggestions. -paul ianal

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