If you have a revocable living trust, it is unlikely that, when you created it, you transferred every asset of yours into its ownership. Whether on purpose or by accident, you might have left property out of it. Yet, you might not have accounted for these assets in other estate planning documents. To make sure your property ends up in the right hands, you may want to draft a pour-over will.
How a pour-over will works
A pour-over will acts as a safety net if you have left assets out of your revocable living trust. When writing it, you will designate your trust as the beneficiary to these assets, so long as they are not accounted for in other estate planning documents or will not pass along in some other manner.
After you die, your pour-over will must pass through probate. Once this process ends, the assets you left out of your trust will enter its ownership. Your successor trustee will then manage or distribute these assets in the manner set forth in your trust document.
Keep in mind that the probate process will delay the disbursement of the assets in in your pour-over will. Yet, without one in place, these assets would disburse following Delaware’s intestate succession laws. Under these laws, they would pass to your closest next of kin, who you may or may not want to have them.
Drafting a pour-over will
Writing a pour-over will may seem simple, especially since your revocable living trust will be the beneficiary to all your assets outside of it. Yet, you will want to make sure the language you use in your pour-over will is valid. To ensure it works in the manner you intend, you will want to draft it with the help of an estate planning attorney.