Make Your Own Living Trust

Another excellent resource from NOLO Press. Trusted legal books for DIYers worldwide. Save yourself thousands of dollars and do your legal dealings yourself with the help of this gem in the rough. Easy to understand instructions, sample forms, written by experienced legal professionals for the people that like to handle their own matters.

Very informative and helpful! Using this book can save you thousands of dollars. It is easy to understand and answered virtually every question we had. The forms alone are worth the price of the book. This book worked well for us, if your estate is very complex, you might need additional help.

All in all a good book, but disappointed in the "Downloadable" forms. There is NO product key that comes with the book. You have to tear the pages out, scan them into a re-writable format, and then fill out the forms. You can of course order the forms through them, but at a price. I would think that they should have offered free downloadable forms for what you pay for in this book.

The book is for revocable living trusts. It has tons of information. The information are equally useful whether or not you decide to make your own living trust. The book has been updated for more than 10 reversions. You can expect that the information provided are accurate. You are lucky if you live in California, as the author is from California. Some people complain that they can't download the forms as stated in the book. I have no problem to download the forms. I haven't used them yet.

I've been using versions of this book for over 20 years to make trusts for myself, and for another family member. I've also used it to make amendments, and most recently to make a complete restatement of my original trust. The author has changed the wording of the trusts over the years, which he explains, and my life situation has changed, so I really wanted to do a new trust. But that means filing new property deeds, etc. So in this newest version of the book I discovered the concept of a restatement of the original trust. You can replace your old trust with an entirely new trust, but not have to re-title everything. The book is full of information that you will need for making your trust, maintaining it, etc. It did take a considerable investment of time for me to learn the information in this book, and you really have to enjoy attention to detail. I think this book is fantastic, and the price is very reasonable for what it delivers. Even if you subsequently decide to hire a lawyer to do your trust, this book will help you get acquainted with the issues so you know what you're talking about when you talk to the lawyer. And it will be a big help to your beneficiaries to know what to do when they inherit.

This is a good book with a lot of basic information. However, it is designed for people who don't know much about trusts and merely want to put their assets in a trust and distribute them to their heirs after death. If you intend to do something more complicated, like having the trustee hold the funds afterwards and pay income beneficiaries you will need to go to an attorney. Still, a good starting point for the beginner.

Well written for Legal DIY'ers, this (along with "Will and Trust Maker" on DVD by Quicken (also a NOLO associate) used as a second resource) allowed me to make my own 'Estate Plan' (Revocable Living Trust and Basic Will and associated P.O.A. documents) which will avoid expensive and time consuming probate which happens if you have ONLY a Will. It will make it much easier for my Daughter to execute my Husband's and my estate and last wishes. We have a very 'simple' estate and beneficiaries so I felt comfortable making our own documents using these resources (vs paying attorneys), but it took a lot of reading/rereading to get done. I recommend reading this book (and lots of underling in book!) and checking out their down-loadable forms so that, at very least, you can understand the meaning and process of Estate Planning, and how important it is to have a Trust in place- even if you use an Estate Planning Attorney (especially if your circumstances are not simple). To be completely transparent: I initially borrowed this book from the library with plans to copy a few pages and take notes, but there was So Much More that I had to have my own book- Also perfect for the future: Chapter titled "Living with Your Living Trust"! Everyone who hasn't made a Trust should know this information!

I told me what I needed to know in about 20 minutes. I found that we do not need a living trust. Saved a visit to a lawyer who might have told us we do ned a living trust, then charged us a small fortune to set it up. Glad I bought this book.