BobKamman
Level 15

@TaxGuyBill  "Protect them?  Why are you against them?"

Because they don't live in New York and California -- where trusts may be a good idea because of archaic probate laws, and where much of the national media are located.  (They call their friends to get local advice for stories that they then spread nationally.)  

This is how the scam works:  Marketing companies call retirement-community landlines at random, convincing the elderly they need to avoid probate.  They don't tell them that trusts can be contested just as easily as wills, on the same grounds, and at least where I live, the cases are filed in probate court.  Once they sell the trust, they offer to help transfer all the assets into the trust.  Well, if you can't trust the people who sold you the trust, who can you trust?  At that point, the sales pitch comes out, "these are poor places to put your money, let us show you something much better."

Then there is the "you need a living trust to save on taxes" scam.  As mentioned above, people have lost huge amounts in taxes by naming trusts as beneficiaries of retirement accounts.  Estate taxes aren't so much of a problem these days, with higher exclusions, but anything you can do with a living trust you can do with a testamentary trust and it doesn't involve changing title.

Most people with trusts think that they can delegate trustee authority with a power of attorney.  In most cases, under state law they can't, but they get away with it anyway because the bank teller with a GED doesn't know any better.  Trusts are a necessary evil if you need a professional trustee, but most people should be concerned more with who manages their money when they are incapacitated, not when they die.  

Trusts are usually a good idea for people with real estate in more than one state.  But to do that right, you need legal advice in both places, and the "avoid probate" crowd overlaps a lot with the "avoid lawyers" crowd.