Pour Over Will

By: Martin M. Shenkman, CPA, MBA, JD

A will that distributes assets into a trust formed under a separate document. This is commonly done with revocable living trusts. You would sign a will that says in the event of your demise any assets owned by your estate should be poured into your revocable living trust. Too often this is handled in too simplistic a manner. First, a pour over will should still be a comprehensive document providing your personal representative with full powers, not a couple of page form. Second the pour over will should have dispositive provisions to address the possibility of your having revoked the revocable trust or it for some reason being invalid or unable to accept the pour over of estate assets. Third, don't assume that every revocable living trust should have a pour over will. In some instances it preferable that the revocable trust and the will dispositive provisions not be combined.

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