Essential Will Package

Revocable Living Trust Package

Pros: 

• Allows you to choose who handles the estate
• Allows you to control who receives distributions and in what amounts
• Lower cost up-front

Pros:

• Allows you to choose who handles the estate
• Allows you to control who receives distributions
• Avoids probate
  • Little to no assistance is needed by the probate/trust attorney
  • No reporting of assets to the Register of Wills (privacy)
  • Lower cost long-term
• Avoids Guardianship proceedings for minor children to receive the inheritance

Cons:

• Assets with no beneficiaries still have to go through probate
  • Loved ones will need to hire a probate attorney
  • Takes at least a year, longer if a competent probate attorney is not hired right away
  • Detailed accounting reports to the Register of Wills, which become a public record 
  • Higher cost long-term
  • Guardianship proceedings for minor beneficiaries
  • Guardianship inventories & annual accountings until age 18
  • Child gets everything at 18 when they might not be responsible to handle the inheritance

Cons:

• Higher cost up-front
• Sounds confusing/difficult to understand
• Comes with homework (retitling assets after setting up the Trust)