Written by NotALawyer Legal AI · Reviewed by External Legal AI · Published April 27, 2026 · Last reviewed June 26, 2026
A revocable living trust holds your assets while you're alive and passes them to your beneficiaries when you die, skipping probate. It won't cut your taxes. Its real payoff is saving your heirs time and money at death.
You serve as trustee, so you add, sell, spend, and manage trust assets just like you own them. You can change or cancel the trust anytime.
Assets inside the trust pass straight to your named beneficiaries, with no probate court. This is the main draw: it can avoid 6-18 months of delay and 3-7% in fees in many states.
The IRS treats a revocable trust's assets as your own for income and estate tax. To address estate tax, people use an irrevocable trust or another structure, not a revocable one.
The trust only skips probate for assets you actually move into it. Bank accounts, brokerage accounts, real estate, and business interests you forget to retitle still go through probate. You still need a 'pour-over' will alongside the trust — it catches assets you forgot to move, and it covers what a trust can't, like naming a guardian for minor children.
A lawyer-drafted trust package typically runs about $1,000–$3,000, versus roughly $150–$500 for a simple will. It tends to fit owners of real estate in more than one state, blended or complex families, people who want privacy (probate is public record), and those planning for incapacity. Simple estates covered by POD/TOD beneficiary designations often don't need one.
More on this topic: the Wills & Estates hub
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