Parties

• A living trust involves multiple parties: a grantor, a trustee and a beneficiary. The grantor is the person who sets up the trust and puts her assets into it. The trustee is the person or business who is in charge of maintaining those assets on behalf of the grantor. The beneficiary is the person who will inherit those assets at a certain point in the future according to the terms of the trust.
  
  

Control

• One of the benefits of setting up a living trust is that it can provide control for the grantor. By setting up a living trust, you can designate which beneficiaries will receive your assets and when they will receive them. This can prevent controversies among family members and it can help you specify what happens to everything. This will allow you to provide for your family after you are gone.
  
  

Avoiding Probate

• Using a living trust can also help your beneficiaries avoid probate. When you die with a will and no trust, the will has to go through probate. This involves taking your will to the probate court and making sure it is legitimate. If you do not have a will or a trust, all your assets will go through probate court. This can be time consuming and frustrating for your family. Assets in a trust do not have to go through probate.
  
  

Legal Assistance

• When setting up a living trust, it is best to hire an estate-planning attorney to help you. While there are kits and products that promise to help you set up a living trust quickly, hiring an estate-planning attorney allows you to get advice about your particular situation. An attorney can help you ensure that the living trust is legitimate.
  
  

Tax Savings

• Certain types of living trust can also be designed to help reduce estate taxes. For example, an AB trust is one type of living trust that can lower the estate tax bill for your beneficiaries. If you have a large estate, instead of passing everything to your spouse when you die, part of your assets could go into a trust. This would allow your spouse to use the assets and then the assets in the trust would pass on to other beneficiaries when your spouse dies. This would lower the total value of the estate and make it possible to take advantage of the estate tax exemption.