Mark Kohler explains that income doesn't matter for a revocable living trust. What matters is whether you own assets like a home, business, or rental property. Trusts let you avoid probate and control who gets your money after you die, especially important if you have minor children or life insurance benefits.
At what income level would you recommend I open up a revocable living trust?
It's not about income, it's do you have any assets at all? Do you have a business or rental property or a home? Do you want to go to the right person when you die? It could be worth a million. It could be worth 100 grand. It could be worth 10 million. The dollar amount doesn't matter. Where do your assets go and do they go through court and a fight? That's what you're trying to avoid. Don't worry about your income. You can make $10 a year or a million dollars a year. That doesn't tell me if you need a trust. Number two, if you have minor children or children
that act like minors,
you need a trust because you're going to le. And if you leave them even a $500,000 on a little bit of life insurance on a 401k, do you want that to go to your minor children and at age 18 they're going to go around and start buying sports cars, which they will do. No, not on my watch. So we have a trust to protect the kids from themselves. You could be a single mom with a million dollar life insurance
policy that costs you 300 bucks a year.
Where do you want that million to go? To a trust. And you can change that trust the rest of your life and you're in control. If you get remarried, great, we'll modify it. But if you died, that million dollars is going to end up in an 18 year old's hand. That would have me no good.
