The Basics

GoGo Estate's Standard Plan includes the following documents:

  1. Revocable Trust
  2. Pour Over Will(s)
  3. Advanced Directive(s)
  4. Health Care Power(s) of Attorney
  5. Durable General Power(s) of Attorney

Taken together, these essential documents help ensure a few objectives are met, including an efficient transfer of wealth and privacy protections.

To properly unlock the benefits of the Standard Trust Plan, your trust must be "funded." Funding a trust means directly transferring your assets to your trust or naming your trust as beneficiary to those assets. While this process may seem tedious, GoGo Estate provides detailed instructions on how to accomplish funding your trust.

The Details

The trust included in our Standard Plan is known as a "revocable living trust." As the name implies, the trust is completely revocable and amendable by you, meaning that you can get rid of it or change it at any point during your lifetime.

During life, you have the power to distribute trust assets as you see fit. However, if you become incapacitated, someone else (known as the successor trustee) distributes trust assets for your health, support, and maintenance. The successor trustee acts in a fiduciary capacity, meaning that all of their actions must have your best interests in mind.

When you die, the successor trustee is responsible for paying any debts, taxes, and expenses that you owe at death. Upon the payment of these expenses, the successor trustee distributes the remaining trust assets to the beneficiaries you designated in the trust document. If your spouse survives you, they receive all of the assets. If, however, you are unmarried or your spouse dies before you, there are three primary ways in which the beneficiaries receive their share of the trust:

  1. Outright Distribution: If the beneficiary is over a certain age or is not receiving means-tested government benefits (like SSI or Medicaid), then the successor trustee distributes the beneficiary's share outright to the beneficiary with no strings attached.
  2. Subtrusts: If you stipulate that a beneficiary cannot receive assets until they reach a certain age (i.e., 25 or 30), then their share is held in a "subtrust" created after your death. Prior to the beneficiary turning the age you set, they receive distributions for their education, health, support, and maintenance. Once they turn the age you choose, they receive a lump-sum distribution outright from the trust.
  3. Supplemental Needs Trust: If a beneficiary is receiving means-tested government benefits like SSI or Medicaid, then their share is distributed into a supplemental needs trust. This is so that the beneficiary does not lose these important government benefits. There are strict distribution requirements and limitations contained within the provisions of the supplemental needs trust.

The remaining provisions of the trust relate to trustee powers, the process for appointment, replacement, or removal of successor trustees, and whether or not the trustee is entitled to compensation. The trust document also outlines procedures for trust ownership of retirement plans and prevents beneficiaries from contesting the terms of the trust so that your wishes are locked in stone.

Other Documents

Below is a description of the other documents included in GoGo Estate's Standard Plan:

  1. Pour Over Will: This will acts as a failsafe mechanism, transferring any assets not owned by the trust and without proper beneficiaries into the trust after your death.
  2. Health Care Directive: These documents state your end-of-life wishes and authorize your doctors, family, and friends to withdraw care in the event that you cannot communicate care for yourself.
  3. Durable Health Care Power of Attorney: This document allows someone else to make health care decisions for you in the event you cannot make those decisions for yourself.
  4. Durable General Power of Attorney: This document allows someone to do everything else (except for health care) that you are legally allowed to do for yourself.

Create a Standard Plan

If you want to protect your family and leave a lasting legacy, purchase your Standard Plan today!