When you create your estate plan, you have a range of options for what to do with your assets. One option is a revocable living trust. The State Bar of Wisconsin explains this is a document that establishes the responsibility of another person to manage the assets within the trust. You create it when you are alive and can change it anytime you wish.
To start the trust, you need to draw up the legal trust documents. These will name all three parties. You are the grantor as the person creating the trust. The trustee is the person who manages it, and beneficiaries are who receive the trust assets after your death. You will also need to state any limitations or restrictions you want to put on the trust assets or the ability of the beneficiaries to receive the assets.
You formally start the trust by adding in assets. You can put very little in it at first if you want to fund the trust later. When you put assets into the trust, it becomes the property of the trust. When you put considerable assets into the trust, making it funded, the trustee’s duties begin. He or she must maintain and manage any assets in the trust.
Upon your death, the trustee maintains control of the trust and then will distribute the assets according to your wishes to the beneficiaries. If you included stipulations, such as beneficiaries must be a certain age before receiving the trust assets, then the trustee will continue to manage the assets remaining in the trust until the trust is empty.
