Make Your Own Living Trust

by Denis Clifford

Book Overview

If you create a living trust, your property will bypass lengthy and expensive probate proceedings at your death and go directly to your beneficiaries, quickly and easily. And if you and your spouse create an AB trust, you may also be able to save your family thousands of dollars in estate taxes. In plain English, Make Your Own Living Trust explains how to create a trust yourself, without hiring a lawyer. Unless you take steps before your death, your...

Customer Reviews

Best resource on the subject

In order to help my parents with their trust, I had checked out about a dozen books on the subject from the library. I found Denis Clifford's to be the easiest to follow and easiest to read on a fairly complex subject. I found the book (and his "Plan Your Estate" book) so informative I bought a set for myself. This book offers lots of "real life" examples of different types of financial scenarios and the best options for setting up a trust that will protect the assets from excessive legal fees and/or estate taxes. It covers almost everything you need to know to either write your own trust or carefully check the details of your trust if prepared by a lawyer. The CD included provides you with the language you need to write your own by filling in the blanks, as well as the step-by-step procedure to cover all the bases to be certain the trust meets all the legal & tax requirements for trusts. This book is also apparently updated each year, as the tax and estate laws are frequently being revised. I highly recommend this book, and also highly recommend as a companion book that covers other aspects of financial planning, wills, etc., Dennis Clifford's Plan Your Estate. I was so impressed I also bought copies of both books for my parents and my sister so we could all get our finances in order.

Attorney Approved

I am an attorney (shyreslaw.com) and I highly recommend this book for those who could use a simple trust and want to avoid probate. Even if you decide to hire an attorney, this book is invaluable because it offers great insight into trusts and avoiding the probate system. Attorney Denis Clifford wrote this great do-it-yourself book which provides everyone a way to create their own simple living trust. A CD-ROM is also provided so you can easily input your information and print it out. For a more complete estate plan, the book introduces the importance of pourover wills in case the trust fails to encompass all the property. You may want to peruse Mr. Clifford's Simple Will Book as well (another recommended buy).

Great buy!

This book was a god-send! I was skeptical at first because I have no legal backround and I thought that making my own living trust would be complicated at best, impossible at worst. But following a recommendation of a friend I decided to give do-it-yourself law a shot. Boy am I happy I did! I saved a fortune in legal fees and was able to get the job done just as well as if I'd had a lawyer coaching me every step of the way.Make Your Own Living Trust was easy to use and very accessible. It even has all of the forms you'll need on an enclosed CD-ROM. Thanks to this book I was able to transfer assets such as stocks, real estate and jewelry to my trust, appoint someone to manage the property that I'm leaving my children, and keep control over it while I live. So don't be afraid to do it yourself, you'll save money and get your trust done the way you want it!

CD present

I was pleased to see this book has a Mac/Windows CD in a jacket on the inside back cover. Your advertising and reviews did not seem to mention that.As usual, this book was what I expect from Nolo: the best. Very informative, detailed, and useful.

Excellent! A 'must read' for anyone with assets.

Even if you plan to hire an attorney to prepare your living trust, this book will help you know what to ask and what to expect.