Super-TRUST-Powers, Part IV | Super Speed
Experience the rush of accelerating to speeds so fast you are nothing but a blur. Move near, at, or beyond the speed of sound or light. Change diapers in record time, run to the Cape and back for a lobster roll during your lunch hour, or discreetly make a cameo appearance in the middle of your daughter’s dance recital without anyone noticing. The Earth is the limit.
In our on-demand culture, speed is coveted. This is the hallmark of estate planning with trusts – efficient administration and easy, immediate access to funds. Make no mistake, the quality of your plan is just as important as its efficiency, but who does cartwheels over the thought of the sloth-like probateProbate can refer to the process of settling the estate of a deceased person. Read More process when someone has died, especially if the courts can be avoided entirely with a trust?
Super-TRUST-Power: Super Speed & Agility
Secret Weapon: Instant Transfer of Control, Avoids ProbateProbate can refer to the process of settling the estate of a deceased person. Read More
The term “probate” comes from the Latin term probare, which means to test or prove. Specifically, it’s the process of proving the validity of a will. But when does proving the validity of anything in court happen quickly? It’s sort of like the process of proving to a two-year-old that your cell phone isn’t working because the battery is dead and they reply “it’s not,” and you show them it’s true by pressing all the buttons to no avail and they reply again “it’s not dead,” so you throw up your arms in frustration and the phone slips out of your hand and into the fish bowl where it floats to the top – truly dead now – and your child remarks, “it’s not dead – it’s just sleeping with the fishes”.
A long process indeed.
Unlike a will, a trust will speed up the administration of your affairs by granting immediate, unfettered access to any account, bypassing the courts, and moving control instantaneously to the individual(s) you have designated. As a result, they could list the house on the market, pay incoming bills, complete tax returns, care for underage children and continue running a business, all without the delay of waiting for court approval. And if that’s not enough speed for you, how about totally wrapping up the estate in a matter of months instead of years?
Recently, a woman came to us who had just lost her mother. Mom was a “do-it-yourselfer” having managed her financial affairs up until the week before she died at 92 years of age. She died with a will but without a trust. The will was done by an attorney who had since retired and closed his doors. All of mom’s accounts were titled in her name and therefore inaccessible to the family pending court approval of the will. All family members live out of state, and no one had the original will. There was a verbal offer to purchase mom’s home but no one yet had the legal authority to sign a formal agreement to put that offer in writing. Needless to say, it has been several months with little progress on wrapping things up, not to mention capitalizing on the potential homebuyer.
At a time when loved ones are grieving, a slow-moving estate settlement serves not only to elongate that grief but also to exacerbate it. Make this process a blur instead with the speed of a superTRUST!
Stay tuned for our next issue, featuring the super-TRUST-power of teleportation.
Read issue I, Atomic Manipulation and Shapeshifting, here.
Read issue II, Invincibility, here.
Read issue III, Healing, here.
