Family Trust Also Called Revocable Trust or Living Trust

An Oklahoma Family Trust acts like a wagon: it organizes your assets in a ‘bucket,’ gives you ‘handle’ control, and uses ‘wheels’ to roll past the probate court.

A Revocable Living Trust is one of the most powerful tools available to Oklahoma families. While a Will is a letter to a judge, a Trust is a private contract that allows your legacy to bypass the courthouse entirely. At Winblad Law, we believe a Trust isn’t just for the wealthy—it’s for anyone who wants to save their family from the stress, cost, and publicity of probate.

Understanding the Trust Like a Wagon: Organize, Control, and Pass On

If you are new to estate planning, the easiest way to understand a Revocable Living Trust is to visualize it as a wagon. It is more than just a legal document; it is a vehicle designed to carry your life’s work safely to the next generation.

The Parts of Your Trust Wagon

To see how a Trust protects you, look at how these three components work together:

• The Bucket (Organize Your Assets): The bucket holds and organizes your property—such as your home, bank accounts, and Oklahoma mineral rights. For the wagon to be useful, your assets must be “funded” (placed inside the bucket) so they are gathered in one protected place.
• The Handle (Maintain Your Control): The handle is for the person in charge of the wagon and its contents. As long as you are able, you hold the handle and steer. If you ever “drop the handle” due to illness or passing, your Successor Trustee picks it up to keep the wagon moving without needing a judge’s permission.
• The Wheels (Navigate with Speed): The wheels represent Probate Avoidance. They allow the wagon to navigate quickly past the expensive, public, and slow process of probate court. This ensures your legacy moves directly to your heirs with the speed and privacy a Will cannot provide.

The Trust Document: Your Rule Book

While the wagon carries your assets, the Trust Document serves as the official rule book for the journey. This document provides the essential instructions for your family, specifically detailing:

• Who is in charge: It clearly identifies who holds the handle and under what circumstances (such as incapacity or death) a successor should take over.
• When they take over: It defines the exact timing for the transition of authority to ensure there is no gap in managing your affairs.
• What to do with the contents: It instructs the Successor Trustee exactly how, to whom, and when to distribute the contents of the wagon to your beneficiaries.

Ready to build your wagon? A Trust is a practical way to ensure your family stays out of court and your instructions are followed to the letter. We offer a free initial consultation in Edmond to help you create a rule book and a wagon that perfectly fits your family’s needs.

No Probate Court: One major advantage of a Trust over a Will is the ability to avoid the expense, loss of privacy, frustration and delays of probate court. Instead of going to probate court, the Trustee you choose has full control over the property and is required to follow your distribution instructions.
Distributions: A Trust gives you the ability to give detailed instructions concerning when, how and to whom distributions are to be given.
• Immediate Distributions: Perhaps one of the most attractive features is the ability to have property distributed immediately and without the need for probate court supervision.

Think of your Trust like a wagon designed to carry your assets smoothly past the probate court (the “wheels”).

• Delay Distributions: A Trust can delay distributions of assets until an heir reaches a financially mature age.
• Special Needs Dependents: You can choose a Trustee to manage the assets and pay bills for somebody with special needs.
• Spendthrift Provisions: You can prevent individuals who are irresponsible or have substance abuse problems from squandering their inheritance by placing a Trustee in charge of the assets.
• Income distributions: You can instruct the Trustee to pay income to designated persons or organizations.

Flexibility: Revocable Trusts can be amended if your needs or the needs of your beneficiaries change. For example, if one of your heirs has a misfortune which makes them more financially vulnerable than others, the Trust can be modified to provide from him or her.

Your Choice of Trustee: You decide who serves as Trustee. Initially, you will serve as the Trustee. Married couples usually elect to have each of them act as co-Trustees then the survivor serves. The successor Trustee can be a person or a Trust Company or Trust Department of a Bank.
Disinheritance: In a Trust, as in a Will, heirs can be disinherited or given property in unequal shares. Generally speaking, spouses cannot be disinherited unless a prenuptial agreement is in place.

Continuity of Management: The person (or married couple) creating a Trust usually choose themselves to be the Trustee(s) until their death or incapacity. Then a successor Trustee that you name takes over. This inures that there is no interruption in authority to pay bills, manage property and conduct business. Without a Trust there is nobody in charge until they are appointed by the probate court.

Are living trusts public record in Oklahoma?: The contents of a Trust are generally free from public examination. Therefore, the distribution plan and the nature of the assets are kept private. In contrast, a Will must be filed in a public record, and the executor will usually be required to file an inventory and appraisals.

No separate tax return: No separate tax return or employer identification number is required while you are the Trustee. See end note.

No government involvement: Trusts created for an Estate Plan require no governmental oversight. There is no agency that regulates Trusts. The terms of a Trust are contained in a private document with very limited requirements for disclosure of its contents.

Your Property is still Yours: Having a Trust does not limit your control. You may sell, give away, rent, lease or dispose of anything you own just as you do now.

The Empty Wagon Danger: A Trust document is only a guidebook; it doesn’t move your property automatically. To work, your assets must be ‘funded’ into the Trust. In Oklahoma, this is especially critical for mineral rights, which are real property and require a recorded deed to be moved into the Trust bucket. Without proper funding, your family may still face probate for ‘forgotten’ assets.

Myths about Trusts:
Trusts are for the very wealthy: Untrue: Trusts can be for anyone with assets or beneficiaries that need to be protected. There is no minimum estate value that is needed to create a Trust.
Trusts are complex: False: Trusts most are simple. The client continues to use the property just as before.
Trusts can be done without an attorney: True: However, many attorneys hire other attorneys to prepare their Trusts and Estate Plans. This is because attorneys recognize that devastating mistakes can occur if a Trust is not drafted or funded correctly.

About the Author

Richard “Rick” Winblad is an estate planning and probate attorney based in Edmond, Oklahoma, with over 30 years of experience helping families secure their legacies. A graduate of the University of Oklahoma College of Law, Rick is AV-Preeminent rated by Martindale-Hubbell, representing the highest level of professional excellence and ethical standards.

Rick’s practice is uniquely focused on the intersection of estate planning and Oklahoma’s complex property laws. He is a recognized authority on oil and gas mineral probates and serves on the Board of Directors for the Oklahoma chapter of the National Association of Royalty Owners (NARO). Whether he’s helping a local family stay out of probate court or guiding out-of-state heirs through mineral rights transitions, Rick is known for his practical, “no-nonsense” approach to the law.

“I believe estate planning shouldn’t be a mystery. My goal is to take the complex ‘legal-speak’ of Wills and Trusts and turn it into a clear, actionable plan for my clients. I often tell people to think of their Trust as a wagon: it’s only useful if it’s properly built, fully loaded, and ready to roll. At the end of the day, my job is to make sure your ‘wagon’ gets the right things to the right people at the right time—without a stop at the courthouse.”

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End Note:  Upon your death tax returns are required for estates and for Trusts.