What Is a Pour-Over Will?

When most people think about estate planning, they picture wills and trusts as two separate tools. But there’s a document that connects the two in an important way: the pour-over will.

A pour-over will is designed to work hand-in-hand with your living trust. If you’ve already created a trust, you probably transferred your major assets like your house, bank accounts, or investments, into it. That way, those assets can pass directly to your beneficiaries without going through probate.

But the reality is that not every asset always makes it into the trust. You might forget to retitle an account, inherit property later in life, or simply acquire something new after your trust is created. Without a backup plan, those “loose ends” would be handled outside of your trust, often through probate, which can be time-consuming and expensive for your family.

This is where the pour-over will comes in. It acts as a safety net. The document says that any assets not already in your trust at the time of your death should be transferred, or “poured over,” into the trust. From there, they’ll be managed and distributed according to the instructions you already laid out.

It’s important to understand that assets passing through a pour-over will may still go through probate before they can be transferred into the trust. However, the advantage is that once probate is complete, everything ends up in one place, governed by one set of rules. That consistency makes things much simpler for your loved ones.

Estate planning is about preparing for the unexpected. A pour-over will provides an added layer of protection and peace of mind, making sure that nothing slips through the cracks and your wishes are carried out as you intended.

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