EDUCATION
Pour Over Will
A “Pour-Over Will” is a special type of will that works in conjunction with the Revocable Living Trust. Upon death, the Pour-Over Will transfers, or “pours-over” any property held in the recently-deceased person’s name to that deceased person’s trust.
Working in conjunction with a revocable living trust, a Pour-Over Will transfers assets into an individual’s trust that were not included during that individual’s life. The Pour Over Will helps to clarify your estate planning intent, adds simplicity by having a single Revocable Living Trust document control everything, and offers privacy that wills, alone, don’t offer.
Even people that create their plan properly will die with certain assets in their names as individual(s) that have not been placed in the trust. This occurs because some assets can’t be formally titled to the trust, while other assets just simply hadn’t been transferred. So long as the gross value of the “personal property” assets held in the deceased person’s name is less than the then-existing “Small Estate” value under Probate Code 13100 ($184,500 as of 1/1/2023), those assets, such as cars, heirlooms, jewelry, financial account(s) not held in the trust, etc. will be “poured-over” or transferred to the trust upon death.
The previously-named Trustee of the Trust then controls all of the deceased person’s assets. The Trust then controls your entire estate.
Clarity
Clarifies Your Intentions
Everything is controlled by the trust, which makes your plan, wishes and estate administration clear and straightforward. The Trust, not the Will, determines how your estate is to be administered and distributed and by whom. The Successor Trustee named in the Trust (not the Executor named in the Will), is the person in charge of all estate matters and administration.
Simplicity
Simplified Way to Include All Assets
You're not going to transfer everything you own into your living trust. No one does. Nor do you need to. A pour-over will takes care of assets that you don't get around to transferring to the trust before your death and “vacuums” them up to the trust.
Privacy
Provides Privacy
Trusts, unlike wills, are private. Trusts don't become public records after your death available to anyone who wants to look at them. If you have any estate information contained in your will, anyone in the world can see those details upon request from the Court.
Having a pour-over will that simply “pours” property from one’s name to the trust’s name on death keeps important matters private. Information such as who administers the estate, the details of the estate, and who and how the parties inherit the estate is only divulged to interested parties that are administering or getting a share of the estate.
