“Do I still need a will if I get a trust?” is a question that I get often when people approach me about getting a living trust created to help take care of their estate planning needs. Although living trusts aren’t necessary in Texas as much as in some other states, there are definitely still times and circumstances where they can be very useful. But even if you get a living trust created, you should still have a will, even if it’s merely what’s called a pour-over will that basically just puts any probate assets into the trust upon your death.

Most people tend to think that if they create a trust that they can easily put everything they own into that trust. In reality that can be quite difficult. Anything with a title, eg. real estate and cars, can be re-titled to make them part of the trust. But then you need to stay on top of this process. Over time we tend to buy new cars and different houses as well as accumulate other items that need to be properly titled. The same thing goes for financial assets like bank accounts and investment accounts. In reality, there is a tendency for at least a few things to ‘slip through the cracks’ and not get put into the trust properly.

Also, there can be assets that you are not even aware of that will need to be dealt with upon your passing. For example, your estate may have assets that you did not know about. These could be things like mineral rights, assets from other pending estate administrations, financial accounts that you’ve overlooked, etc.

And if you don’t have a will, then when you die, any of these assets that aren’t in the trust that you set up will need to go through a probate process that can be much more difficult and expensive than if you had had a will. Likewise, the assets that go through the probate process are required to be distributed by very strict rules, and this may mean the assets don’t go to who you really would have wanted them to go to.

Bottom line: You should get a will even if you have a trust.