• One grantor, two, or someone you are helping

  Make the trust alone, with a co-grantor (and say whether they are your spouse), or for someone else who will sign it.

• Trustee and successor trustee

  Control the assets yourself or name trustees, and name up to three successor trustees to manage the trust if you become incapacitated or die.

• Beneficiaries, with a spouse option

  Name up to four beneficiaries (a person, a charity or a business), mark any who are minors, divide equally or by share, and name an alternate. Or leave everything to a spouse.

• A schedule of what goes in

  List real estate, financial accounts, personal property and other assets, up to five, and they appear as the trust's Schedule A.

• Specific gifts

  Leave up to three specific gifts to people, charities or businesses before the rest is divided, each with an optional alternate recipient.

• Young beneficiaries and final costs

  Choose when a minor receives their inheritance, and whether the trust pays final taxes and debts and funeral costs.

• A pour-over will for each grantor

  Add a pour-over will that sends anything left outside the trust into it, with an executor, and its own signing pages.

• Witnesses and a notary

  Choose a notary only, a witness and a notary, or two witnesses and a notary, and the document ends with the matching blocks.

• A lawyer reviews it before it is used

  Your answers are prepared into a draft and reviewed by a qualified lawyer, rather than handed back to you as a finished form.

A revocable living trust is a trust you set up for your own property and can change or end while you are able to. While you are alive and able, you usually manage it yourself; a successor trustee takes over if you cannot or when you die, and the trust's property is given out as you directed.

This builder asks who the grantors are (you, you and someone else such as a spouse, or someone you are helping), who the trustee and successor trustee are, who inherits, what you are putting into the trust, any specific gifts, when a young beneficiary receives their share, and whether the trust pays your final debts and funeral costs. It can also prepare a pour-over will for each grantor, which sends anything left outside the trust into it.

Whether a living trust suits you, how property is moved into it, and the tax and probate consequences depend on your circumstances and your state, so the draft sets none of that out. A lawyer confirms it before you sign, and the draft says so rather than leaving you to assume it is complete.

Not sure? Talk to an attorney about your situation first.

These are separate documents, for different jobs.

• Pour-over willA will that passes whatever is left into your trust.View document
• Last will and testamentSet out who inherits and who carries out your wishes.View document
• Power of attorneyName someone you trust to handle your finances if you can't.View document

• Setting up a trust to hold the family home
• Naming a successor trustee to manage your affairs if you cannot
• Spelling out gifts to named people and what happens to the rest
• Leaving a minor child's share to be held until they are older

• Last will and testamentSet out who inherits and who carries out your wishes.View document
• CodicilChange part of an existing will without rewriting it.View document
• Pour-over willA will that passes whatever is left into your trust.View document
• Just-in-case instructionsLeave clear instructions for whoever would need to step in.View document