Can You Write Your Own Living Trust?

A living trust is a legal tool that moves your property to the people you choose after you die, without sending it through probate. Probate is the public court process that settles an estate, and it can be slow and costly. A revocable living trust lets your assets pass to your heirs quickly and privately, which is a real advantage over a will alone. Hiring an attorney to draft one can run into the thousands, but plenty of people put together a solid living trust on their own using low-cost DIY tools, sometimes for as little as $30 to $350.

• Why a living trust helps you skip probate
• What a living trust costs: DIY versus a lawyer
• The basic steps to build a living trust
• When DIY makes sense, and when to call a lawyer
• Set up a living trust where you live

Why a living trust helps you skip probate

For most people planning their estate, avoiding probate is a top priority. A revocable living trust, unlike a will, gives you a fast, private path to hand off your property after death without court involvement. It won't cover everything a will does — you can't name a guardian for your children through a trust, for instance — but it's a far more efficient way to pass along property, especially big items like a house.

What a living trust costs: DIY versus a lawyer

If you run into questions specific to your circumstances, or an estate planning wrinkle that a standard trust can't handle, that's when hiring a lawyer makes sense.

Say you've decided a revocable living trust is right for you. What should you budget? Doing it yourself typically costs around $30 for a guidebook, or somewhere between $100 and $350 for a service like Quicken WillMaker & Trust. Hiring a lawyer instead usually runs $1,000 to $2,000 on average, though the price shifts depending on your location, how complicated your estate is, and the attorney's experience level.

It's tempting to think that spending more on a professional guarantees a better outcome. That's not always true. If you're willing to put in a couple of hours with a good self-help resource, you may land in just as strong a position.

The basic steps to build a living trust

Here's the thing most people don't realize: a living trust isn't much harder to put together than a will. Attorneys usually build a standard trust starting from a base of boilerplate legal language, then fill in details like:

• The name of the person setting up the trust (called the grantor, settlor, or trustor) — that's you, if it's your trust.
• The name of the person running the trust (the trustee) — also usually you. Yes, the same person both creates and controls it.
• The name of whoever steps in as trustee once you die or become incapacitated (the successor trustee), often a spouse, adult child, or close friend.
• The names of the people who'll inherit the trust property (your beneficiaries, same idea as with a will).
• The name of someone to oversee property left to minor beneficiaries.

Once the trust document is drafted, you sign it in front of a notary.

One more step matters: for the trust to actually work, you need to retitle any property covered by it into the trustee's name, using a deed or the appropriate transfer paperwork.

When DIY makes sense, and when to call a lawyer

If the process is that straightforward, why not handle it yourself? Many people do, without any trouble. But bring in a lawyer if you have questions unique to your situation, or if you're facing an estate planning issue a basic trust doesn't address. Consider getting professional advice if:

• You carry significant debt.
• You're uncertain about the full extent of what you own.
• You don't have anyone you'd trust to serve as successor trustee.
• You want to attach conditions to a gift (like leaving money to a nephew only if they finish college).
• You expect your beneficiaries to clash over what you're leaving them.
• You live outside the U.S. or own property abroad.
• You could be on the hook for estate taxes.

Even if you end up working with an attorney, doing some homework first is worth your time — it's far cheaper than paying someone to walk you through the fundamentals.