Will vs Trust — Which Do You Need?

A will directs what happens to your estate after you die. A trust is an arrangement where trustees hold property for beneficiaries, and it can operate while you are alive.

Often yes. Even people with a trust keep a will to cover assets that were never transferred into it. A will is the foundation of any plan.

Assets properly transferred into a trust generally pass outside your estate and so avoid probate. Assets left out of the trust do not.

Make your will first — it is free here and takes about twenty minutes. Then consider whether a trust adds anything for your circumstances.

They are unrelated despite the similar name. A will says who receives your property after you die. A living will, also called an advance directive, records your medical wishes while you are alive but unable to speak for yourself. Most people should have both, and they are separate documents.

A trust that was drawn up but never had assets transferred into it. It is the most common and most expensive trust mistake, because the paperwork exists while the protection does not. Anything left outside the trust still passes under your will.

Not necessarily. A will can already appoint guardians and hold a child's inheritance until an age you choose, which covers what most families are worried about. A separate trust is for more specific circumstances.