Popular Book From CCH Explains Living Trusts, Urges Use Of Professional Advisors

(RIVERWOODS, ILL., July 6, 1999) – A living trust can be a powerful estate planning device, but individuals should thoroughly understand what they can and cannot do and what pitfalls must be avoided before they set one up, according to CCH INCORPORATED, a leading provider of tax and business law information. To help people understand what a living trust is and how they can work with a professional advisor to create one that will meet their needs, CCH has published the third edition of its popular What You Should Know About Living Trusts, a 32-page booklet for individuals and for financial planning professionals who wish to educate their clients.

A living trust is simply a way of dividing the legal rights to property among various people – including the current owners. The most common concern is to keep the present rights to the property while giving the future, after-death rights to the owner’s beneficiaries.

What You Should Know About Living Trusts walks the reader through the process of setting up a living trust and clearly spells out their advantages. For example, by transferring wealth in this way, owners of property avoid probate. While the expenses of probate are significant, the booklet points out that the delays of probate may be even more burdensome when the object is to transfer a business to one’s beneficiaries.

Additional concepts such as privacy protections, expeditious asset distribution, reduction of legal challenges, simplified disposition of decedent property in multiple states, protection for the incapacitated and creditor protection are all helpfully discussed in non-technical language that non-professionals can readily grasp. As might be expected from the publisher of authoritative materials for tax professionals, the CCH booklet points out subtle tax advantages that can be gained from elections available to living trusts as well as two potential tax drawbacks.

Professional Advice a Must

CCH noted that today people can create a living trust – or think they’ve created a living trust – by filling in the blanks on a form or clicking a box on the Internet. But What You Should Know About Living Trusts points out that living trusts have potential pitfalls, and that professional advisors with a knowledge of state inheritance, trust and tax law play a crucial role in setting up living trusts that truly meet their clients’ needs.

Many people lose the benefit of their living trust, for example, by failing to transfer property to the trust in the first place, forgetting to put new property into the trust, mixing trust and non-trust assets or by being lax about titles, deeds and other ownership records.

What You Should Know About Living Trusts also lists more than a dozen questions to be considered before setting up a trust – questions that conscientious professional advisors will work through with their clients.

Availability and Pricing

For more information, or to order What You Should Know About Living Trusts, call CCH at 1-800-248-3248 or click here. Single copy price is $7.00. Significant quantity discounts are available for professionals who wish to distribute copies to their clients and prospects.

About CCH INCORPORATED

CCH INCORPORATED, headquartered in Riverwoods, Ill., was founded in 1913 and has served four generations of business professionals and their clients. The company produces more than 700 electronic and print products for the tax, legal, securities, human resources, health care and small business markets. CCH is a wholly owned subsidiary of Wolters Kluwer U.S. The CCH web site can be accessed at www.cch.com.

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EDITORS NOTE: An editorial review copy of What You Should Know About Living Trusts is available by contacting Leslie Bonacum at 847-267-7153 or bonacuml@cch.com.

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