What does a simple will or a pour-over will and revocable living trust do?
The will allows you to decide who will get your personal property and who will get your real estate, except jointly owned property which passes outside the will to the joint owner. You choose your executor, the person who will administer your estate; you also choose to whom and in what amounts your property will go. Even if you hold property jointly with your spouse, there may be some property that is not jointly held; and, in a common disaster, the property of each by law will pass, if the order of death cannot be determined, as if each spouse died before the other. You will wish to decide on a guardian of any minor children. Wishing “to avoid probate” with its costs or to have someone able to manage your property if you are disabled and make discretionary distributions when you are gone, involves a revocable living trust with its costs. Often the trust is unfunded in standby-mode with the availability of transfer prior to death by a durable power of attorney. A pour-over will “pours”
