{"id":1992,"date":"2011-04-24T18:15:49","date_gmt":"2011-04-25T01:15:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/?p=1992"},"modified":"2011-04-24T18:20:12","modified_gmt":"2011-04-25T01:20:12","slug":"big-trust-misconception","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/index.php\/big-trust-misconception\/","title":{"rendered":"The Biggest Misconception About Trusts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week I wrote a post about the <\/span>biggest misconception about wills<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 The same recent conversation that I mentioned in that post also reminded me of what I believe is THE biggest misconception about Trusts.\u00a0 Remember what my friend said?\u00a0 “So I have my will or trust, so I don’t have to worry about going through probate…”<\/span><\/p>\n

The Myth: having a trust means that you don’t go through probate.\u00a0 And the buzzer says “bzzzzt,” wrong.\u00a0 You may be thinking, “what?!\u00a0 Mike, you are off your rocker.\u00a0 That’s why I have a trust . . . to avoid probate!”\u00a0 Just *having* a trust does not bypass the probate process.\u00a0 To bypass probate, the trust must be “fully funded.”\u00a0 “Funding” a trust is the process of changing ownership or beneficiaries of an asset to the trust.\u00a0 I still have not had a trust come through my office for a review that was fully funded.\u00a0 Yes, you read that right.\u00a0 I know they’re out there, but I have yet to have one come in for review!\u00a0 Not exactly what you thought when you started creating your legacy<\/span><\/a>, huh?\u00a0 If you’re curious to know more, you can read my blog post on the topic by clicking here<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Michael Lichterman<\/a> is an estate planning and business planning attorney who helps families and business owners create a lasting legacy by planning for their Whole Family Wealth\u2122<\/a>.\u00a0 This goes beyond merely planning for finances – it’s about who your are and what’s important to you.\u00a0 He focuses on estate and asset protection planning for\u00a0 the “experienced” generation, the “sandwich generation” (caring for parents and children), doctors\/physicians, nurses, lawyers, dentists, professionals with minor children, family owned businesses and pet planning.\u00a0 He takes the “counselor” part of attorney and counselor at law very seriously, and enjoys creating life long relationships with his clients – many of which have become great friends.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week I wrote a post about the biggest misconception about wills.\u00a0 The same recent conversation that I mentioned in that post also reminded me of what I believe is THE biggest misconception about Trusts.\u00a0 Remember what my friend said?\u00a0 “So I have my will or trust, so I don’t have to worry about going […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,80],"tags":[16,30,38,35,29,75,42],"class_list":["post-1992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-estate-planning","category-trusts","tag-grand-rapids-estate-planning","tag-grand-rapids-estate-planning-lawyer","tag-grand-rapids-michigan-estate-planning-lawyer","tag-grand-rapids-trusts-lawyer","tag-probate-avoidance","tag-wills-and-trusts-attorney-grand-rapids-michigan","tag-wyoming-mi-trusts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1992"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2027,"href":"https:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1992\/revisions\/2027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}