Estate planning is the process of planning how best to transfer your assets from you to others in a manner that reducing or eliminates most tax burdens. The best of both worlds is not owning anything (no tax burdens) but controlling it all.

The answer to this question depends on the assets involved and their value, and whether you want privacy or not. If privacy is your ultimate concern, then a trust is the way to go, because it stays private. If you have no estate tax concerns, you live in Georgia, and privacy is not that important to you, then a will may be best. Keep in mind that if you use a trust, you still will need what’s known as a “pour-over will.” This type of will is necessary to catch all of your assets that were not placed inside of your trust.

The bare minimum anyone should have is a will, a financial power of attorney, and a healthcare power of attorney. These three documents spell-out who gets what assets and when (a will), who handles your financial matters when you can’t (financial power of attorney), and who makes healthcare decisions for you when you cannot (healthcare power of attorney).

No! When you die, so does your power of attorney documents.

Yes! For a trust, the trustee is usually the creator of the trust (that’s you) and when you die a successor trustee takes over and is obligated to act in the manner spelled out in the trust. For a will, the executor (which is not you), because a will only takes affect when you die. The executor is obligated to act in the manner spelled out in the will. If there is no will, then the court will appoint an "Administrator" to act in the place of an executor.