What's better, a will or a living trust?

Jim: I just wanted to find out what might be the best path for us to take in regards to a will or a living trust or whatever for my wife and I. I'm 72, she's mid-60s. Our assets are rather simple; a house, an IRA, and cars, and that's it.

Attorney Tom Olsen: Jim, at the Olson Law Group, we're all about helping people to avoid probate. We consider a living trust to be a complicated tool for avoiding probate. A living trust can be the appropriate tool for avoiding probate if you own real estate in other states, like a vacation home in North Carolina, or if you're including your young grandkids, or if you have a spendthrift child or a child on disability and governmental benefits, those could all be reasons to use a living trust to avoid probate, Jim.

If those don't fit you, if that's not you, then, Jim, good news. We can use simple tools to avoid probate for you. First of all, Jim, IRAs, life insurance, by their very nature, they don't go through probate as long as you and your wife have named each other as the primary beneficiary and named your children as contention beneficiaries. Then cars, boats, vehicles don't go through probate. Then it's easy to avoid probate on bank accounts, checking, savings, CDs, money markets, by keeping those accounts in your names only but making them POD, payable on death, to your kids.

Then we have a great tool for avoiding probate on your home called a Lady Bird deed. It's a deed that we would prepare. It would state that as long as one or both of you are alive, it is your home to do with as you please, but when you have both passed away, your home would automatically go to your children. No headaches, no hassles, no probate.

Jim, I understand that's a lot. Jim, the good news is we offer a free initial consultation to talk about that in more detail with you. We also have a free booklet called Easy Ways to Avoid Probate that talks about what we just did. As well, we have a free workshop coming up on Easy Ways to Avoid Probate that we'll be talking about those very topics.

Jim, you can schedule a free initial consultation by phone or in person, or order a booklet, or come to our workshop, and that one's going to be on March 15th at noon. Jim, does that get you started? Do you have any other questions about that?

Jim: Absolutely. I think that's very helpful. Yes, I'd sure like to get the brochure and probably attend the seminar. When is that seminar? Where is that seminar? Let me ask you that.

Tom: The next workshop is on March 15th. It happens at noon. It happens at our office in Orlando, Florida. We're on Edgewater Drive. We're the Olson Law Group in Orlando. You can call us and we'll get the address, and you'd also want to call to reserve your seat, Jim. If you want the booklet mailed out to you as well, you have to call the Olson Law Group and we'll mail that booklet out to you.

Attorney Chris Merrill: You can call, Jim, right now at 407-423-5561.

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