Revocable Living Trust

Revocable Living Trusts are typically the simplest and safest way to transfer property upon your death to the beneficiaries of your choosing. It mostly achieves the same objective as a Will, with one major critical distinction: a Trust helps avoid going through the costly and time consuming probate court process. If you own a home or condo in California, your gross probate estate will almost always be in excess of $150,000,  which will cause mandatory formal probate to trigger if you die with only a Will, with no estate plan at all, or with no other probate avoidance mechanisms in place. Probate fees often exponentially exceed the cost of setting up a Trust.

With a Revocable Living Trust, it is called "living" because they are created while you are alive. They are "revocable" because you can change them at any time before you death, and for any reason. Sometimes they are referred to as "Inter Vivos Trusts" which simply means "among the living" in Latin.