Setting up a revocable living trust happens in stages. With Estate Planners for Life, families begin with the three-step Path to Planning: a Right Fit Call, a Family and Asset Questionnaire, and a Get Acquainted Meeting with an attorney. Then comes planning, plain-language review, signing, and funding, when your assets are moved into the trust so it works when needed.
This article explains what happens after you call an estate planning firm. Estate Planners for Life is an estate planning practice serving families in Norman, Oklahoma City and central Oklahoma. We help parents and grandparents create revocable living trusts, wills and powers of attorney, and we help keep those plans current as laws and life change. Here is the process, step by step.
Our Path to Planning is simple and has exactly three steps.
The Right Fit Call is a complimentary, brief conversation, about 15 minutes by phone or in person, with a member of our team. It is not a call with an attorney, and we will not give advice about your situation. Instead, we learn what brought you to us, answer your initial questions, and see whether our planning process may be a good fit for your family.
Before you meet an attorney, you will share information about your family, your assets, your concerns and your planning priorities. A few practical tips that make this step easier:
The questionnaire simply helps your attorney arrive prepared to listen.
Next, you meet one of our attorneys. This is a conversation about your family, what matters most to you, and what you want your plan to accomplish. The attorney explains how we may help and outlines your options. You are not expected to know which plan you need. The attorney recommends, and your family chooses among the options laid out for you.
Once your family decides to move forward, our process continues with Planning. This is where your revocable living trust setup actually takes shape.
We go deeper into your circumstances: who you want to care for, who should step in as successor trustee if you cannot manage your affairs, and how you want things handled for your children or grandchildren. From there, your attorney makes strategic recommendations suited to your circumstances.
Your trust and supporting documents are then designed around the decisions your family has made. A trust-based plan typically works alongside other documents, such as a will and powers of attorney, so that your wishes are covered during your lifetime, during any incapacity, and after you pass.
We review your documents with you in plain language until they are clear. If a provision does not make sense to you, we keep talking until it does.
When everything reads the way you want, you sign. We guide you through the formalities so your documents are properly executed.
Funding is the step families most often overlook, and it is the one that makes a trust work. A revocable living trust can only manage the assets that are actually titled in its name or directed to it. If the trust holds nothing, your family may still face court proceedings.
Funding generally means retitling assets, such as your home or certain accounts, into the trust, and reviewing how other assets are directed. Properly done, funding helps your family avoid probate and lets your successor trustee step in smoothly. During Planning, we work with you on funding so it is not left as an unfinished chore on the kitchen table.
A practical habit: whenever you open a new account or buy property, pause and ask how it should be titled. Asking that keeps new assets from falling outside your trust.
A plan needs to be reviewed as laws and family circumstances change. That is why the second part of our process is Maintenance. Members of our Estate Planners for Life membership receive an annual check in, a periodic review with the plan updated as needed, and a team that is here when laws change or when life presents a change, such as a marriage, a death, a move, a new grandchild, or a sale of the family home.
The third part is Administration. When someone passes, we provide trust administration for the families whose planning we did. Because the same team that helped plan will help your successor trustee, they already know your plan and your family.
The Path to Planning does not commit you to anything before you understand your options. If a phone call feels like too big a first step, you can start with one of these:
This article is general education, not legal advice, and every family's situation is different. The Right Fit Call is complimentary and takes about 15 minutes. If you would rather learn a little more first, join us at our complimentary Path to Planning Workshop Series in central Oklahoma.
With Estate Planners for Life, you begin with a complimentary Right Fit Call, about 15 minutes with a team member. Next you complete a Family and Asset Questionnaire, then meet an attorney at a Get Acquainted Meeting to discuss your family, priorities, and the options available for your plan.
Your attorney listens to your family's circumstances and goals, then recommends options suited to them. Your family chooses among those options. You never need to figure out on your own which plan fits. The documents are then reviewed with you in plain language until every provision is clear to you.
A trust only controls assets titled in its name or directed to it. If assets are left outside, your family may still face probate. Funding means retitling property and reviewing account designations so your successor trustee can step in smoothly. Without it, the trust does not do its job.
When assets are properly placed in a revocable living trust, your successor trustee can manage and distribute them according to your instructions, generally without a probate proceeding for those assets. Proper funding is essential. An attorney can explain how this applies to your own Oklahoma property and accounts during the planning process.
Plans should be reviewed periodically and updated whenever laws change or life changes, such as a marriage, divorce, death, birth, move, or major sale. Estate Planners for Life Members receive an annual check in and periodic reviews, so their plan stays current and ready when it is needed.
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Separately, you can subscribe to A Matter of Trust, a weekly newsletter from Tamara featuring practical estate-planning guidance, thoughtful reflections on family and legacy, and other estate planning ideas worth passing along. Sign up for one or both.
Estate planning is a process, not an event. Start with a Right Fit Call: a short, no-pressure conversation to see whether we are the right firm for your family, and what a plan that walks alongside you would look like.
