Yes, trusts can avoid probate in Rhode Island. By creating a trust and transferring your assets into it, the assets can bypass the probate process when you pass away. This can save your beneficiaries time and money, as probate can be a lengthy and expensive process.
The cost of setting up a trust in Rhode Island varies depending on the complexity of the trust and the attorney's fees. A basic Revocable Living Trust generally ranges from $1,000 to $3,000. More complex trusts can cost several thousand dollars more. Online services like Snug can provide a more affordable alternative to traditional legal services, offering estate planning services, including trusts, at a lower cost.
The overall cost of estate planning in Rhode Island can run to $4,950.
A Revocable Living Trust is the most common type of trust people set up, offering flexibility and control over your assets during your lifetime and helping to avoid probate. Other types of trusts, such as Charitable Trusts, Special Needs Trusts, and Irrevocable Trusts, may be appropriate depending on your specific circumstances and goals.
Funding a trust in Rhode Island involves transferring ownership of your assets to the trust. For real estate, a new deed must be prepared with the trust as the owner. Bank accounts should be retitled in the name of the trust, and other assets like vehicles, personal property, business interests, stocks, and bonds must also be formally transferred to the trust.
Adding a house to a trust in Rhode Island can be a little more complex. The state has rules and regulations about it.
In Rhode Island, any individual who is of legal age (18 years old) and mentally competent can serve as a trustee. Furthermore, Rhode Island law also permits corporations, such as banks or trust companies, to serve as a trustee if they are authorized to exercise trust powers in the state. Trustees must be capable of managing and caring for property, and they should not have been found guilty of serious crimes, including felonies or crimes that involve dishonest or immoral behavior.
In Rhode Island, to alter your living trust, you must create an amendment to the original trust document. The amendment should clearly outline the changes you wish to make, whether it's adding or eliminating beneficiaries, changing trustees, or altering distribution guidelines. Make sure to include the date, your name, the name of the trust, and the date the trust was originally created. Just like the initial trust document, your amendment needs to be signed in the presence of a notary public. If you're making extensive adjustments to your living trust, it might be more practical to draft a restatement of the trust. A restatement allows you to rewrite the whole trust while keeping the original date and title of the trust, which can be advantageous for avoiding the need to retitle assets. In the restatement, you would incorporate all the modifications you want, and these new provisions will completely replace the old ones.
