Revocable Living Trust Attorney in Huntsville
Trust-based estate plans for families and business owners in Huntsville and North Alabama.
You work directly with attorney Sarah S. Shepard, from the first call through the signing.
Schedule a Consultation with Sarah | Call 256-512-6019
A living trust can keep your home and accounts out of probate, put someone you chose in charge of trust property if you can no longer manage it, and hold a child's inheritance until the child is ready. It does those things only if it fits your family and if your deed, accounts and IRA or 401(k) beneficiary forms line up with it.
Sarah S. Shepard is a Huntsville estate planning attorney at Sparkman, Shepard & Shepard, LLC (SSS Law). Admitted to the Alabama State Bar in 2012, she prepares revocable living trusts and wills, and she designs and reviews each plan herself.
Why Huntsville Families Choose a Living Trust
A revocable living trust is a trust you create and control during your life. It holds the property you put into it, passes it to the people you choose at your death, and can be amended or revoked while you are living (Ala. Code § 19-3B-602).
A trust usually earns its place when:
You own real estate in more than one state. Deeded to the trust, a lake house or family land elsewhere can pass without a second probate there.
Your family is blended. A trust can provide for your spouse for life and save the rest for your children (planning for blended families).
A beneficiary needs protection. A child, a young adult or someone with a disability or debts may need a managed share, not a lump sum.
You want a plan for incapacity. Someone you chose, not a court, steps in to manage trust property.
You value privacy. Unlike a probated will, a trust is generally not filed with any court.
If a will is enough for your family, Sarah will tell you so. Do I need a revocable living trust? walks through that decision.
What Sarah Prepares in a Trust-Based Plan
A living trust plan with Sarah usually includes:
The revocable living trust, saying who receives what, when, and who manages it. Married couples can use one joint trust or separate trusts.
A pour-over will, which names your executor, nominates a guardian for minor children and sends into the trust anything left in your name alone with no named beneficiary. What it catches goes through probate first.
A durable power of attorney, which lets someone you choose manage property outside the trust, such as retirement accounts, and keeps working if you become unable to act.
An advance directive for health care, with your living will and health care proxy.
The deed that moves your home into the trust, when your engagement includes that work.
Funding Your Trust: Deeds, Accounts and Beneficiary Designations
Funding a trust means moving property into it, or making property payable to it at your death. An unfunded trust avoids nothing.
Your home and other Alabama real estate. A new deed to you as trustee, recorded in the county where the property sits. We prepare and record deeds only as part of an estate plan. Property in another state may need a lawyer licensed there.
Bank and brokerage accounts. Retitled to the trust, or set to pass to it at death where the institution allows.
Retirement accounts and life insurance. These usually stay in your name and pass by beneficiary designation. Sarah reviews each form so it fits the plan.
Business interests. Assigned to the trust under the operating agreement or bylaws (planning for a closely held business).
Because our firm also handles probate and trust administration, we see where funding falls short after a death: a house never deeded to the trust, an account opened after the signing, a beneficiary form that still names a former spouse. Sarah looks for those gaps while you can still fix them.
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Choosing Your Successor Trustee
While you are living, you usually serve as your own trustee, with your spouse if you have a joint trust. Your successor trustee takes over at your death, or sooner if you cannot manage the trust.
The right choice is not always the oldest child. Look for someone organized, fair with the family and willing to do the work, which can last years if a share stays in trust. A family member, a friend, or a bank or trust company can serve (who can serve as trustee).
After a death, Ty Shepard advises successor trustees through trust administration. We do not serve as trustee; the people you name do.
Trusts for Children and Other Beneficiaries Who Need Protection
A trust can hold a beneficiary's share and pay it out on your terms:
A minor child. Alabama treats 19 as adulthood, and money left outright to a younger child may need a court-appointed conservator. A trust names the manager instead and can hold the share to the ages you choose (who manages a child's inheritance).
A young adult. The trust can pay for school, housing and health care and release the rest in stages.
A beneficiary with a disability. Sarah prepares supplemental needs trusts, often called special needs trusts, that hold what you leave the beneficiary and pay for things that add to the person's quality of life. She writes each one with public benefit programs in mind; whether a particular benefit is affected depends on that program's rules and on how the trust pays out.
A beneficiary with debts or a spending problem. Spendthrift terms generally keep the beneficiary's creditors from reaching the share while the trust holds it, with some exceptions, such as child support.
That protection is for your beneficiaries. A revocable trust does not shield your property from your own creditors.
Your IRA or 401(k), Your Trust and the SECURE Act
You can name your living trust as the beneficiary of an IRA or 401(k). If much of your savings sits in those accounts, the beneficiary form can matter as much as the trust. The SECURE Act, the federal law that changed the rules for inherited retirement accounts, sets the timing:
10-year rule. Most people who inherit your account, other than your spouse, must empty it by the end of the 10th year after your death.
Yearly withdrawals. If you had already reached the date your required yearly withdrawals must begin, the beneficiary generally must also take some each year.
Exceptions. A few can take longer, such as your child or stepchild under 21 (the federal rule's age; a grandchild does not qualify) or a beneficiary who meets the IRS test for disability or chronic illness.
Your spouse. A spouse named directly has the most flexibility, including rolling the account into their own; naming a trust for your spouse generally gives up that option. If you are married, a 401(k) generally needs your spouse's written consent to name anyone else, including your trust.
When a beneficiary needs someone to manage or protect the money, Sarah drafts a trust to receive the account. If a trust named on the form does not meet the IRS rules, the account may have to be emptied faster. The trust's terms also decide whether each withdrawal passes straight out to the beneficiary or can stay in the trust, a choice that affects taxes, the payout rules and whether the money stays protected. More on naming your trust as beneficiary of an IRA or 401(k).
Alabama law generally protects your IRA from your creditors while you are living, but that protection ends at your death, except for money a surviving spouse owns or controls (Ala. Code § 19-3B-508). Left outright to a child who lives in Alabama, the account can generally be reached by the child's creditors. Left to a trust with spendthrift terms, it can stay protected from the child's creditors while the trust holds it, with some exceptions, such as child support.
Schedule a Consultation with Sarah
How to Set Up a Living Trust With Sarah
Phone consultation. Tell Sarah about your family, what you own and any will or trust you already have.
Drafts and review. Sarah recommends the trust's terms, drafts your documents and goes through each one with you, including the people you are naming and what you ask of them.
Signing. You usually sign at our Huntsville office, where we provide the witnesses and notary your documents require.
Funding. Sarah walks you through the deed, account changes and beneficiary forms that fund the trust. Your engagement states which of these steps the firm handles.
How Much Does a Living Trust Cost in Alabama?
We charge flat fees for estate planning, based on the documents and planning your family needs, and we agree on the fee before you engage the firm. Your first consultation is a free phone call of about 20 to 30 minutes, and our office arranges the time with you.
Living Trust Questions
Does a living trust avoid probate in Alabama?
Yes, for what the trust owns or what is payable to it at your death. Anything still in your name alone, with no named beneficiary, usually passes under your pour-over will through probate. More on how to avoid probate in Alabama.
Does a revocable trust protect my assets from creditors or nursing-home costs?
No. While you are living, your creditors can reach property in your revocable trust, and after your death it can pay your debts and estate expenses if your probate estate falls short (Ala. Code § 19-3B-505). Medicaid also generally counts it as yours. We do not do Medicaid planning for long-term care or nursing-home costs; if those costs are your main concern, talk with an elder law attorney.
Do I need a lawyer to set up a living trust in Alabama?
No. Alabama does not require one. But a trust works only for property moved into it or payable to it, and the trust, pour-over will, deed and beneficiary forms have to point the same way. Sarah plans them together and walks you through the funding steps.
Is a living trust from another state valid in Alabama?
Generally, yes: a trust validly created in another state remains valid in Alabama. But a house you buy here in your own name stays outside the trust until you deed it to the trust. New to Huntsville? See updating your estate plan after a move.
Can I change or update a living trust I already have?
Yes, if it is revocable. Sarah reviews the trust, every amendment, your deeds and beneficiary forms, then recommends whether to amend or replace it. An irrevocable trust follows different rules.
Talk With a Huntsville Living Trust Lawyer
Sarah works with families in Huntsville, Madison, Athens and Decatur, and across North Alabama, including Madison, Limestone, Morgan, Marshall and Jackson counties. Most of the work can happen by phone, email or video. You do not need to have decided on a trust before you call.
Sarah S. Shepard, Attorney at Law
Sparkman, Shepard & Shepard, LLC
303 Williams Avenue SW, Suite 1411
Huntsville, AL 35801
256-512-6019