Contact
(844) 562-3572
[email protected]
TextBack Number
+1Â 877-721-2590
Deliveries:
354 Eisenhower Parkway
Suite 1250
Livingston, NJ 07039
- Additional Office Locations
(844) 562-3572
[email protected]
TextBack Number
+1Â 877-721-2590
Deliveries:
354 Eisenhower Parkway
Suite 1250
Livingston, NJ 07039
Planning for the future is one of the most meaningful gifts you can give to your family. Yet many New Jersey residents put off estate planning, sometimes indefinitely, because they find the subject overwhelming, uncomfortable, or unnecessarily complicated. The reality is that working with an experienced living trust attorney in NJ to create a comprehensive estate plan is far simpler than most people expect, and the peace of mind it provides is invaluable. At The Law Office of Barry E. Janay, we help individuals and families throughout New Jersey create living trusts and complete estate plans that protect their assets, provide for their loved ones, and ensure that their wishes are honored, during their lifetime and after.
A living trust, also known as a revocable living trust or inter vivos trust, is a legal document that allows you to transfer ownership of your assets into a trust during your lifetime while retaining full control over those assets as the trustee. You can amend or revoke the trust at any time while you are alive and have mental capacity. Upon your death or, if you become incapacitated, upon your incapacity, a successor trustee you have designated steps in to manage or distribute the trust’s assets according to your instructions, without the need for court intervention.
This last point is one of the most significant advantages of a living trust over a simple will: the avoidance of probate. Probate is the court-supervised process by which a deceased person’s will is validated, and their estate is administered. In New Jersey, probate can be time-consuming, costly, and public, meaning that the details of your estate become a matter of public record. Assets held in a living trust, by contrast, pass directly to your beneficiaries according to the trust’s terms, without court involvement, without delay, and without public disclosure. For many families, this benefit alone makes a living trust the superior estate planning tool.
A living trust also provides critical protection in the event of your incapacity. If you become unable to manage your own affairs, due to illness, injury, or cognitive decline, your designated successor trustee can step in immediately to manage the trust’s assets on your behalf. Without a trust, your family might need to go through a court proceeding to establish a guardianship or conservatorship, which is an expensive and time-consuming process that can be deeply stressful for everyone involved.
A living trust is rarely a standalone document. A well-designed estate plan built around a living trust typically includes several complementary documents that work together to provide complete coverage for the full range of circumstances you and your family might face.
The first essential companion document is a “pour-over will.” Even with a comprehensive living trust, you may have assets at the time of your death that were not transferred into the trust, perhaps a bank account you opened after creating the trust, or personal property you never formally re-titled. A pour-over will acts as a safety net, directing that any assets not already in the trust at the time of your death be “poured over” into the trust to be administered according to its terms. While assets passing through the pour-over will may still be subject to probate, the pour-over will ensures that they are ultimately governed by the comprehensive instructions in your trust rather than distributed under New Jersey’s intestacy laws.
A durable power of attorney is another critical component of any living trust plan. This document designates someone you trust, your “attorney-in-fact” or “agent”, to make financial and legal decisions on your behalf if you become incapacitated. While your successor trustee can manage assets held in the trust, a durable power of attorney covers assets and decisions outside the scope of the trust, such as tax filings, Social Security matters, and any assets that were not transferred into the trust. Without a durable power of attorney, your family may need to seek court-appointed guardianship to handle these matters on your behalf.
An advance healthcare directive, which includes a healthcare power of attorney and a living will, is equally important. The healthcare power of attorney designates someone to make medical decisions on your behalf if you are unable to make them yourself. The living will expresses your preferences regarding life-sustaining treatment and other end-of-life medical decisions, guiding both your healthcare agent and your medical providers when those decisions must be made. These documents ensure that your medical wishes are respected and that someone you trust has clear legal authority to advocate for you when it matters most.
Finally, many clients with minor children also include a nomination of guardian in their estate plan, designating who should serve as the legal guardian of their children in the event of the parents’ death or incapacity. This is one of the most important decisions parents can make, and it should be documented clearly in a legally valid format.
Creating a living trust is only the first step. A trust that has not been properly funded, meaning that assets have not been legally transferred into the trust, provides no benefit at death or incapacity. Funding a trust is the process of re-titling assets in the name of the trust (or, for certain assets, designating the trust as a beneficiary), and it is a step that is frequently overlooked or incompletely executed by individuals who create trusts without professional guidance.
Real estate is typically the most significant asset that must be transferred into a living trust. For New Jersey homeowners, this involves preparing and recording a deed that transfers the property from the individual owner to the trustee of the trust. Our attorneys coordinate this process carefully, taking into account existing mortgage terms, which may include due-on-sale clauses that could theoretically be triggered by a transfer, and any title insurance implications. In practice, transfers of a primary residence into a living trust do not typically trigger mortgage issues, but careful attention to the details is important.
Financial accounts, bank accounts, investment accounts, and brokerage accounts are funded into the trust by contacting the financial institution and requesting that the account be re-titled in the name of the trust, or by designating the trust as a payable-on-death or transfer-on-death beneficiary. Our attorneys provide clients with detailed guidance on how to approach each financial institution and what documentation they will need to present.
Retirement accounts, IRAs, 401(k)s, 403(b)s, require special consideration. These accounts are generally not retitled into a living trust because doing so can trigger immediate taxation of the account’s value. Instead, the trust may be designated as a primary or contingent beneficiary of the retirement account, with careful attention to the tax implications of that designation. Post-SECURE Act rules governing the distribution of inherited retirement accounts have made this area of planning more complex, and our attorneys stay current with these developments to provide accurate, up-to-date guidance.
Life insurance proceeds can also be directed to the trust, either by designating the trust as a beneficiary of the policy or, in more complex estate plans, by using an irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT) to hold the policy outside of your taxable estate. Our living trust attorney NJ team advises clients on the optimal strategy for incorporating life insurance into their overall estate plan.
For many New Jersey clients, a revocable living trust is just the beginning of a comprehensive estate planning strategy. Depending on the size of your estate, the composition of your family, and your specific planning goals, additional strategies may be appropriate to minimize estate and gift taxes, protect assets from potential creditors or long-term care costs, or address the unique needs of blended families.
New Jersey eliminated its own state estate tax in 2018, but the federal estate tax, which applies to estates exceeding the current federal exemption amount, remains a concern for high-net-worth individuals and families. Strategies for reducing federal estate tax exposure include the use of irrevocable trusts, annual gifting programs, charitable giving vehicles such as charitable remainder trusts and donor-advised funds, and the use of valuation discounts for closely held business interests. Our attorneys work with clients and their financial advisors to develop integrated tax planning strategies that coordinate with their living trust plan.
Long-term care planning is another increasingly important consideration for New Jersey residents. The cost of nursing home and assisted living care in New Jersey is among the highest in the country, and many families are surprised to discover that Medicare covers very little of these costs. Medicaid, which does cover long-term care, has strict income and asset requirements, and planning is often necessary to position a client to qualify for Medicaid while protecting a portion of their assets for their family. Our attorneys advise clients on the use of irrevocable Medicaid asset protection trusts and other planning strategies, taking into account Medicaid’s five-year look-back period and New Jersey-specific rules.
Blended families present unique estate planning challenges that a living trust can help address. When spouses have children from prior relationships, careful planning is needed to ensure that each spouse’s assets ultimately pass to their own children while providing for the surviving spouse during their lifetime. Qualified Terminable Interest Property (QTIP) trusts and other specialized trust structures can provide this kind of targeted protection, and our attorneys are experienced in designing plans that balance the interests of all family members fairly and according to our clients’ genuine wishes.
LOBEJ Law’s living trust attorney NJ team works in close collaboration with our other practice groups to provide truly integrated legal counsel. Our Business Law attorneys coordinate business succession planning with personal estate planning. Our Real Estate team handles the property transfers involved in trust funding. If estate disputes arise, our Criminal Law Defense and Civil Rights teams provide additional legal depth. For clients with debt concerns, our Bankruptcy Debtor Collection practice addresses financial challenges that intersect with estate planning, and our Commercial Collections team assists with business receivables that may form part of an estate’s assets. Our Aviation Law team advises clients on the unique considerations involved in planning for aircraft assets, and our Wills, Trusts, and Estate practice encompasses the full range of estate planning services alongside our living trust work.
Contact LOBEJ Law today to schedule a consultation with an experienced living trust attorney in NJ and take the first step toward protecting your family’s future.
A will is a legal document that directs how your assets should be distributed after your death, but it must go through the probate process before assets can be transferred to your beneficiaries. A living trust, by contrast, holds your assets during your lifetime and transfers them to your beneficiaries at death without probate, providing faster, more private, and often more cost-effective asset distribution. A living trust also protects incapacity, since your successor trustee can manage trust assets immediately if you become unable to do so, a function that a will cannot perform. Most comprehensive estate plans include both a living trust and a pour-over will.
Yes. A revocable living trust, which is the most common type, can be amended or revoked at any time while you are alive and have mental capacity. This makes a living trust a very flexible planning tool: as your family situation, financial circumstances, or estate planning goals change over time, you can update the trust to reflect those changes. Common reasons clients amend their trusts include changes in marital status, the birth of grandchildren, changes in the financial circumstances of beneficiaries, and changes in tax law. Our living trust attorney NJ team recommends reviewing your estate plan at least every three to five years and whenever a major life event occurs.
A standard revocable living trust does not, by itself, reduce estate taxes, because you retain full control over the trust’s assets during your lifetime and those assets are included in your taxable estate at death. However, a living trust can serve as the foundation for more advanced tax planning strategies, such as the inclusion of AB trust provisions or the coordination of the trust with irrevocable tax planning trusts, annual gifting programs, and charitable giving strategies. Our attorneys will assess your estate’s potential tax exposure and advise on whether additional tax planning strategies are appropriate given your situation and goals.
Most significant assets should be transferred into your living trust, including real estate, bank accounts, investment and brokerage accounts, business interests, and personal property of significant value, such as vehicles and jewelry. Retirement accounts (IRAs, 401(k)s) are typically not retitled into the trust itself due to tax implications, but the trust may be designated as a beneficiary. Life insurance proceeds can be directed to the trust through a beneficiary designation. Our attorneys provide detailed guidance on the optimal funding strategy for each type of asset based on your specific situation.
The cost of creating a living trust in New Jersey varies depending on the complexity of your estate and the specific documents included in your plan. A comprehensive estate plan that includes a living trust, pour-over will, durable power of attorney, and advance healthcare directive typically represents a more significant investment than a simple will, but the long-term savings from avoiding probate and the peace of mind of knowing your affairs are in order often far outweigh the upfront cost. At LOBEJ Law, we discuss our fee arrangements clearly and transparently at the outset of our relationship so you understand exactly what your estate plan will cost before we begin.
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Phone
(844) 562-3572
Email
[email protected]
Fax
(908) 379-8754
Primary Address
354 Eisenhower Parkway Suite 1250 Livingston, NJ 07039
New York Office
90 Broad St. 25th Floor, New York, NY 10004
Satellite Office
766 Shrewsbury Ave., Suite E-202 Tinton Falls, NJ 07724