You can pass down personal property in your estate plan. The property doesn’t even have to have a lot of monetary value. If you have something of sentimental value to pass on to a friend or family member who would appreciate it, you can do that! A Woodland Hills trust attorney can help you find the right arrangement. Let’s make sure that all of your personal property goes to people who can appreciate it.
What’s the Best Way to Pass Down My Personal Property?
If you want to pass down specific pieces of personal property to specific people, you can outline your wishes in your will. Once you pass away, the executor of your estate will do their best to distribute the property to the right beneficiaries. If you have made your wishes clear, this should be rather simple.
There’s an even better way to do this though. We suggest putting your personal property in a trust. When you do this, you can help your family avoid the probate process. This is a court process that divides up your assets and makes sure that they get to the right beneficiaries. This takes time and can cost your estate money though. When assets are in a trust, they don’t need to go through probate.
It’s even possible to stay in complete control of your trust and the personal property within it. A revocable trust allows you to change the rules and beneficiaries at any time. You can place assets in the trust or take them out.
How Should I Document Which Personal Property is Being Passed Down?
Once you have a trust or a will set up, it’s also a good idea to document your personal property with photographs and notes. If there is any ambiguity about what should be passed down to who, that can cause problems later. You do not want family members fighting over your property once you have passed away.
So take pictures of specific items that you want to pass down. Label them. Keep them backed up on a hard drive or USB stick. You might even want to keep multiple copies just in case of a hardware failure. It also might be a good idea to give one of these to someone you trust, like your executor or lawyer.
Finally, make sure that you actually fund your trust. This may seem like silly advice, but it’s necessary because people do sometimes forget to place their assets and personal property in trusts after creating them. So fund your trust and help your family avoid probate.
Schedule Your Consultation
When you are ready to make an estate plan of your own, contact the Law Offices of Yacoba Ann Feldman. We can help you make a plan for what happens to all of your personal property, no matter how valuable or invaluable it may be. Schedule a consultation today.
