It depends.  Living trusts are more complicated than wills and typically cost more.  (They also require the consumer to do more things, such as change ownership of property into the name of the trust, which definitely adds trouble and inconvenience and may add expense.)  Usually some of the settlor's property is left out of the living trust (either by design or neglect), so a pour-over will -- a will which "backs up" the living trust and says, in essence, "if I forgot to put anything into the living trust before I died, I hereby put it there at my death" -- has to be probated to get those assets into the trust.  In most cases, where the plan of disposition is straightforward (for example, in trust for your spouse and then to your children in equal shares when the surviving spouse dies), the cost of the probate proceeding is likely to be roughly equal to the additional cost of the living trust-based estate plan, so there is little or no savings.  In other cases, the savings and other advantages can be substantial.  (See below for a general discussion of when a living trust is a good idea.)

Last updated on January 6, 2011 by Glenn Karisch