Yes, trusts can avoid probate in Wyoming. By creating a trust and transferring assets into it, you can bypass the probate process, which can be time-consuming and expensive. Assets held in a trust do not become part of your personal estate and are not subject to probate upon your death.
The cost of creating a trust in Wyoming varies depending on the complexity of your estate and the attorney's fees. The average cost for a basic Revocable Living Trust ranges from $1,000 to $3,000, while more complex trusts may cost more. Online legal services may offer lower-cost alternatives to traditional legal services for creating trusts. The overall cost of estate planning in Wyoming tends to be between $600 and $4,250.
The most common type of trust is a Revocable Living Trust, which allows you to maintain control over your assets during your lifetime and can be amended or revoked. Other types of trusts, such as Charitable Trusts or Special Needs Trusts, may be appropriate depending on your specific estate planning goals.
To fund a trust in Wyoming, you must transfer ownership of your assets to the trust. This includes re-titling real estate, changing account holders for bank accounts, and transferring ownership of personal property, vehicles, business interests, stocks, and bonds.
Adding property to a trust can be a little more complex — Wyoming has specific laws about this.
In Wyoming, any individual who is at least 18 years old and mentally competent can serve as a trustee. Additionally, Wyoming law allows for corporations, such as banks or trust companies, to serve as a trustee if they are authorized to exercise trust powers in the state. Trustees must be able to handle and take care of property, and they can't have been found guilty of serious crimes, including felonies or crimes that involve dishonest or immoral behavior.
In Wyoming, to change your living trust, you should create an amendment to the original trust document. Clearly state the changes you wish to make in this amendment, whether it's adding or removing beneficiaries, altering trustees, or modifying the instructions for distribution. Be sure to include the date, your name, the trust's name, and the date the trust was created. Just like the original trust document, your amendment needs to be signed in the presence of a notary public. If you wish to make extensive changes to your living trust, it might be more practical to create a restatement of the trust. A restatement allows you to rewrite the entire trust, while preserving the original date and title of the trust, which can be advantageous for avoiding the retitling of assets. In the restatement, include all the changes you want to make, and the new provisions will supersede the old ones completely.
