Most people think trusts are only for the wealthy.
But every family can benefit from one. A revocable living trust is one of the simplest and most powerful tools for protecting your assets, avoiding probate, and building a legacy that lasts.
Let’s dive into how families can use basic legal structures (like a trust or family LLC) to start building generational wealth and values that outlive them.
What a Revocable Living Trust Does
A revocable living trust (RLT) is an estate planning tool that lets you keep control of your assets while you’re alive and make it easy for your family to manage them when you’re gone.
Unlike a will, a trust avoids the long, costly, and public probate process. When a family has a trust in place, assets can transfer immediately without courts or delays. Bank accounts, real estate, and business interests move directly to the trust, keeping your affairs private and organized.
“You want the advantages of everything pouring over into a trust. It gives your family continuity. No red lights. No probate courts. Just smooth transition.”
Why Every Family Should Have One
When someone passes away without a trust, their estate usually goes through probate court. This can take months or even years. It often leads to legal fees, delays, and unnecessary stress for family members.
A properly funded trust eliminates most of that process. It ensures that assets, like homes, businesses, and investments, transfer immediately to beneficiaries.
It also provides continuity. Family members can access accounts and manage ongoing financial obligations without waiting for court approval.
When to Create One
There is no minimum income or asset level required to start a trust. The best time to set it up is when you begin building wealth, own property, or have dependents.
Parents can also help their children establish simple trusts once they start accumulating assets such as savings, crypto, or collectibles.
Creating trusts early introduces financial literacy and helps younger generations understand how wealth is managed responsibly.
How Much It Costs
A revocable living trust is not as expensive as many assume. A well-drafted trust for both spouses typically costs between $2,500 and $5,000, depending on complexity and location.
For that cost, you should receive:
- A revocable living trust for each spouse
- A will that works in tandem with the trust
- A general assignment transferring non-titled assets into the trust
- Guidance on retitling titled assets like homes or business interests
The key is to ensure everything is signed, witnessed, and executed properly. A simple trust is better than none at all.
The Step Most People Forget: Funding the Trust
Creating a trust is not enough. It must be funded, meaning your assets are actually transferred into it.
That means changing titles on homes, investment accounts, or life insurance policies so the trust becomes the legal owner.
Without this step, assets can still end up in probate, even if you have a trust. Always double-check that your trust holds everything you intend it to.
Integrating a Family LLC
Families who own small businesses or investments can enhance their planning with a family LLC. The LLC can operate as a business, investment vehicle, or asset manager under the trust.
A family LLC allows parents to include their children in the business, pay them for legitimate work, and teach financial responsibility.
Payments to children can often be deductible to the business while remaining tax-free to the child if their income stays under the standard deduction limit.
This turns financial education into real-world experience while strengthening family unity and accountability.
Using Family Meetings as Strategy Sessions
Regular family meetings can serve as business strategy sessions when documented properly. They can be used to discuss goals, review investments, and teach younger members how money flows through the family structure.
For families with businesses, these meetings can also double as board sessions. This creates a paper trail for decision-making, builds leadership skills, and may even provide legitimate business deductions for meeting-related expenses.
The goal is to combine family engagement with sound financial governance.
Start Simple
The best family structures start small. You do not need a complex or expensive setup to begin.
Start with:
- A basic revocable living trust
- A will that complements the trust
- A general assignment for non-titled assets
- A family LLC or partnership for income-producing activity
As your assets grow, your structure can evolve into a full family office or charitable foundation. The key is to start early and stay consistent.
Putting It All Together
A revocable living trust is one of the simplest ways to protect your family, avoid probate, and pass down wealth efficiently. Combine it with an organized business structure and family governance, and you create a foundation that lasts generations.
Start today by setting up your trust, funding it properly, and educating your family on how it works. The best legacy you can leave is not just wealth, it is wisdom and order.
Transcript
[00:00:00] Introduction to Family Office Structures
[00:00:00] Mike J: Today we’re diving into a topic that many think is reserved for the ultra wealthy, but it’s not. We’re talking about how any family can go through a simple LLC structure to a robust family office that preserves wealth and value across generations. I’m thrilled to be joined by Jack five Ash, attorney and co-founder of the co letter whose article from family LLC to family office.
[00:00:21] A roadmap for everyone published in August lays out practical steps and wisdom for this exact journey.
[00:00:28]
[00:00:47] Mike J: Share a little bit about
[00:00:48] why this journey matters for everyday families, not just, dynasties in the Rockefellers.
[00:00:53] Jack F: see people talking about family offices all the time. But we never really see. How [00:01:00] to start the process.
[00:01:01] The process is usually started very early on with a family business a revocable trust that gets set up.
[00:01:10] Or just a family LC that gets set up just to start the family off and get the family engaged.
[00:01:16] My passion really is helping people get started with their family, engaging with their family. And building something that might not already be built. Now sometimes we’re working with with family LLCs and family corporations that are established and been established for multi-generations, but a lot of times it’s people just wanting to get started.
[00:01:42] Mike J: Yeah, that makes sense. And so when you say family, LLC, just for the audience purposes, what is your concept when you’re thinking about that? Is this a family business and that’s a family LLC or is this a separate business from, say, another business that they’re operating, or either they’re a high income W2 earner?
[00:01:57] What does that look like?
[00:01:59] Jack F: Yeah, great [00:02:00] question because a lot of the ones that I deal with right now I say family, LLC, but they’re corporations. A lot of times they’re S corporations, sometimes they’re good old C corporations that you and I have talked about before now have some tax advantages.
[00:02:16] But for instance, the one I worked on all morning this morning is just a good old C corporation. So really we take. What we have and start from there. So if we’re starting with an older, multi-generational or even single generational corporation, then we start with that. If not, typically the good place to start would be with a new LLC.
[00:02:41] Understanding Revocable Living Trusts
[00:02:41] Mike J: Makes sense. In your article you begin with this idea of a revocable living trust or an RLT being that launchpad for a family. Can you unpack why you believe every family should have one? What is a revocable living trust? What’s the purpose of it and how does that fit into this concept of a family office?
[00:02:59] Jack F: It just makes [00:03:00] everything smoother from a probate standpoint. Having a will with a. With a trust adjoined with it is really the best way to go these days. And it is because when someone passes, especially if it’s the leader of the family, you wanna spend just as little time as you can in probate.
[00:03:23] You don’t want the difficulties of probate. You want the advantages of everything pouring over into a trust. And immediately there’s some continuity. No red lights no having to go to the probate courts in order to get access to bank accounts, those things. So it’s always a good idea.
[00:03:44] Regardless of what you do and how you do it, to establish an estate plan for both spouses and as early as you can establish one for the kids as well. And that [00:04:00] involves a will and having a trust, because that’s actually the knitting the yarn that brings everything together for the whole family.
[00:04:09] So at that point, you were able to explain to your children this is how mom and I did it. We want you involved. And so we want to get you set up with a will and trust that works with ours. And that, and from there, at that point, if you don’t have a family business, you want that family business to be owned by the trust.
[00:04:35] You don’t want that family business to be owned individually. So the fabric of the whole thing is what you’re looking to create.
[00:04:43] Mike J: Yeah. So two things I just wanna follow up on that concept is one, it, what age would you say as parents, it is time to get your kids set up with a revocable living trust.
[00:04:53] At what age would you do that for the child?
[00:04:56] Jack F: That’s a good question. I don’t know that it really [00:05:00] matters. When they start now, nowadays younger and younger children are accumulating assets that matter. Everything from coins to, to, back in the day it was stamps. Now it’s Bitcoins. Now it is altcoins. It is everything. And whenever they start accumulating some assets, I think it’s time to do it. Yeah, that might be at 12, it might be at 15, it might be at 18. But I think it’s time to do it. There are some restrictions on actually entering into a contract, but really state by state you’re entering into a contract when you create a revocable trust, you’re entering into a contract with yourself at that point.
[00:05:47] I don’t know if there is an age limit.
[00:05:50] Mike J: Yeah. And help me with this piece. Just trying to talk about the process of starting one of these trusts because I think that as a business owner myself, and, when I was starting a [00:06:00] family, I don’t know how many times financial advisors said, we need to get you set up with a trust.
[00:06:04] And they would tell me every year at the meeting, I’d say yeah, I’ll do that down the road. And it wasn’t until I had my first child, I’m like, okay, maybe I should do this. And I went down that path and I don’t know what was. Kind of causing some meat meats and just not jump into it.
[00:06:19] Like my thought process is one, it sound super complex. You’re talking trust. Sounds complex to me. Seems expensive. And so I think the initial reaction was, seems like a lot of work and seems like it costs a lot. Not something that’s important in my life right now. Of course something were to have happened at that time, even my family would’ve loved it. So talk to us a little bit about that process of what is the complexity? How easy is it to get these kind of done? And I know prices range significantly across the board, but, give us a rough idea of what you believe would be a fair price for a trust as people are starting to reach out.
[00:06:53] Cost and Process of Setting Up a Trust
[00:06:53] Mike J: Attorneys what is a fair price that they should be looking for? And what is one that’s saying, okay, that’s probably a more complex structure that you than you [00:07:00] need.
[00:07:01] Jack F: As a lawyer I think my job is not so much to talk you into a trust. It is to help your spouse actually achieve the goal of getting you into a will and a trust.
[00:07:19] So I’m really good. At talking spouses into getting their will and trust finally. And usually it’s one or the other that’s really pushing art. It’s typically not both at all. And for good reason. Just like you said, you had have a child. At that point you really need to have something set up.
[00:07:41] And it’s not that terribly expensive. It cost I’d say that if it’s simple it’s something that if you do both spouses at the same time which is always important, maybe depending on the area of your country, you’re in [00:08:00] somewhere between 20 $505,000, depending on how complicated it is.
[00:08:05] But it doesn’t have to be complicated. It just has to be well done.
[00:08:11] Mike J: But yeah,
[00:08:12] Jack F: 2,500 bottom line should get you and your spouse done. In most instances with an attorney with a proper closing and a proper signing, which is critically important. The other thing that’s critically important that if you’re asking for one, is to make sure that they do a general assignment of the bulk of your assets that don’t require titling.
[00:08:39] And that’s a simple document that can be done at that time. And it’s also important, really important to do it at that time. In fact, I’m dealing with a case right now where it was done a little later and it’s causing problems because there’re. Beneficiaries raising questions [00:09:00] about when it was done, when the general assignment was done, and what it applied to and what it didn’t apply to, for instance, like interest in a business.
[00:09:09] Was the general assignment broad enough? To cover an interest in a business or did you need to do a specific assignment? So that’s a really critical document that a lot of people forget about, oh, I just need a will, or, oh, I just need a will and trust. You need a will trust and general assignment. Then your healthcare stuff or your durable power of attorney is usually, most attorneys do that separately.
[00:09:34] Most, some do it at the same time, but. But in terms of you paying for that, they’ll charge you extra for that. But the general assignment is critically important.
[00:09:44] Mike J: Yeah, and I think another thing that, I didn’t realize too and when I got went down that process is this idea of funding the trust and, making sure that changing the title on homes and life insurance and, going through that whole process is.
[00:09:55] Set a trust up. But if you don’t do some of those important things you’re still [00:10:00] potentially dealing with probate anyways.
[00:10:01] Jack F: It’s the kickstart, right? So in a lot of states, if you don’t actually do something to fund your trust, like a general assignment, and that’s typically the purpose of General Simon.
[00:10:15] If you don’t do that, then your trust can be challenged as never started. It’s an important thing to get done,
[00:10:22] Involving Family Members Early
[00:10:22] Mike J: yeah. Okay. So back to this family office concept and idea. One thing that you talk about is central to your approach is in including family, early being transparent, defined roles for the family members.
[00:10:34] So how do you balance, or how do you recommend balancing involving younger family members while still maintaining that structure, avoiding confusion and keeping things consistent for all members of the family when you’re factoring different ages as well.
[00:10:48] Jack F: And it starts again with whether you have that core asset of a family business already, or if you don’t.
[00:10:57] And so it’s working with what you [00:11:00] have to start with. I like to see parents start their kids off as early as they can possibly start ’em off. As you can pay your kids through a family LLC or through an S-corp. It’s very beneficial. So one of the things that’s great to see is getting them involved that way.
[00:11:19] You’ve gotta pay ’em an allowance anyway, right? Maybe not. Depends on your philosophy, but. Most people are doling out money to their kids. You might as well be able to dole it out and tax deduct it with some good solid assignments for the kids to get involved in the business.
[00:11:36] So I love to see that’s an easy entry in and from that you build. And one of the ways that you can build from that is you say, look, I’m gonna pay you. 12, $15,000 a year. That’s gonna be your allowance. You are going to do social media marketing for our business. But here’s the kicker.
[00:11:58] I’m gonna pay you [00:12:00] that you’re gonna owe very little no taxes on it. To no taxes on it. But if we do this, you’re gonna put aside half that. Every month or every pay period and it’s gonna go into this account. so it’s things like that people do that I love to see, that I love to help get set up that, that get that saving mentality going, that investment mentality going, that governor governance mentality going and starts building that interaction with the family.
[00:12:36] And as a unit. And so that’s how I like to point people that, that have the ability to pay their kids or their grandkids. This case may be
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[00:13:38] Mike J: Yeah. One thing that, that I think is so important and obviously from my end on the podcast, our YouTube channel book, all that stuff, we’re always talking about tax savings, tax strategies.
[00:13:48] But so often a tax strategy isn’t just good for tax purposes, right? There’s more to it than just saving on taxes. And so we talk about this idea of hiring your kids and how powerful that can be from not only [00:14:00] just the tax savings. Perspective, and we, you mentioned the power behind that, but also this idea and concept of working for a living, getting money for work that’s being done.
[00:14:09] Learning the family business, getting involved into that, into a deeper end. Another strategy I like to talk about that also oftentimes involves family members as well is setting up a board. For your business, and I think this dives right in same thing, very similar to this family office concept, is having a board of trusted people around you.
[00:14:26] There’s a tax strategy behind that because when you have board meetings, there’s costs associated with that and meals and maybe travel and maybe even rental of your own home and different things like that with a boardroom or when you’re having board meetings. But it’s also involving your family, your friends, your colleagues, people are trusted with you and I want to help run and grow your business.
[00:14:45] And I just think it’s so powerful to not just think about something as, oh, this is a tax saving opportunity, but what power behind it doesn’t have it there. Because so many people can either avoid a tax strategies because they think it’s a tax strategy and there’s no other [00:15:00] benefit to it. Or they stop going.
[00:15:02] They do something just for that tax benefit and don’t truly live out the additional benefits income with that. Those opportunities.
[00:15:09] Family Business Meetings and Board Structure
[00:15:09] Jack F: Exactly. And turning your annual family vacation into a business meeting. That people who do it all the time and legitimately do it you need to document it.
[00:15:21] You need to put ’em on the board. Depending on how you structure your LLC, you might not have a board. It might just be a group of members, but, have your business meeting. I have had a lot of exposure to a very large family in the country that has family office. And they take it really to the next level.
[00:15:43] They have an annual meeting and they invite speakers. They listen to kids, grandkids. Great grandkids do pitches on new startups. They have a full family office, which is [00:16:00] not obtainable at that level unless you’re ultra wealthy. But the level to which they get kids involved.
[00:16:08] And grandkids is just astounding. And they’re they’re literally making investments in those kids. They have educational trust that kids can easily apply for. And so you can start small and you can work your way to a point. Of taking it to the next level, but really the main thing to focus on.
[00:16:33] Is not just building a bunch of costs and expense, but building some values, some wealth, some revenue with whatever entity it is that you use to start out with. And getting the kids involved in that process and let ’em understand where the money comes from and how the expenses are laid out and doing those things early on is just.[00:17:00]
[00:17:00] It’s just critical to having something that lasts because a lot of people say, oh, this would be a great idea. Then they get an attorney involved or a CPA involved or both or even a financial advisor involved. They start getting three, four or five $10,000 bills and they’re like maybe we’re ought to slow roll this a little bit.
[00:17:20] And you don’t have to do that. There are much less expensive ways to get advisors. Involved in your effort to create something of value. And there’s very inexpensive ways to do it if you’re just gonna create an investment account at Fidelity or anywhere else, or Schwab. You can just, you don’t even have to have an LLC.
[00:17:42] You can start a general partnership with your family. It’s not always the best idea. We have one. I have one with my kids and it’s a good way to get them started just on the investment side without a lot of the overhead and concern. So [00:18:00] yeah something that I could sit down and draft up a center, simple general partnership and a resolution to get past the fidelity gatekeepers where you open the account.
[00:18:13] I do that in two or three hours. Of time. I don’t have to pay the state. It’s just an easy thing to do. So to get your kids involved.
[00:18:22] Mike J: Yeah. So talk to us a little about the, this you mentioned kinda this idea of a family LLCE, especially in the article that we’re walking or talking through right now.
[00:18:30] Structuring Family Business Entities
[00:18:30] Mike J: If somebody has an operating business, let’s say somebody is has a plumbing business and they have this successful plumbing business, is that family. C that you talk about, or your concept of a family, LLC, is that plumbing business or are they starting a second LLC or a second as you just mentioned?
[00:18:46] General partnership that’s specific to the family. For that piece.
[00:18:51] Jack F: Depends on how they’re structured, but they might not need another entity. A lot of times you find the older entities or C [00:19:00] corp maybe they’ve never been converted to an S corp, maybe they need to be they need to make an s selection.
[00:19:07] Nowadays, as having a C corp that’s been around for a while is perhaps valuable. Long term. That’s a topic for another podcast, but but you don’t always need a new company. I think one of the most critical things to do is to make sure that everyone who’s a shareholder of that family entity.
[00:19:32] Has got a will and has got a trust and there’s been a proper assignment of that company of the interest in that company to those wills and trust so does, there’s no tax impact, doesn’t affect anything. It’s just a matter of getting it done. And then that structure in your trust, how you structure it, how you create your [00:20:00] trustees how you create your trust powers how you manage assets.
[00:20:05] Then that’s the beginning of forming a proper structure and governance cycle for you and your kids and your grandkids, quite frankly.
[00:20:17] Mike J: Yeah. Now for someone that, that’s really just getting started, or maybe they’ve been having a successful business for a while, but they’re just making a good income and not really building true wealth or just in those starting stages of building wealth, what are some of the recommendations that you talk to them as far as a foundation of somebody that’s just getting started or just starting to see the profits and see that wealth building train start to move?
[00:20:42] What do you recommend to them for some of the foundations?
[00:20:46] Jack F: As the, as a actual charitable foundation or just a foundation of building a good base to start from.
[00:20:55] Mike J: Yeah. So just building that good base to start from as a family.
[00:20:58] Jack F: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It really [00:21:00] depends on what business you’re in.
[00:21:01] If you lucked out and stroked it pretty early and, you’re sitting on about 50 Bitcoin right now. Your structure’s a little different than if you’re a CPA with a CPA practice or a lawyer with a law practice, or an engineer with an engineering practice. Or if you own a meile store, an old family.
[00:21:26] Business, whether it’s a service business or whether it’s a remnant carpet business. It’s, it that’s, it’s, again, it goes back to ex exactly what you’re starting with. If you’ve got, let’s say you and your spouse are both employed you’re both doing well and you really wanna start.
[00:21:48] Putting something away for either the children that you’re planning on having or you’re gonna live life without children and you want to go a foundation route, [00:22:00] then you wanna structure something as early as you can. And what I always recommend is getting some of your money that you’re making while you’re young and active and start putting that money away.
[00:22:16] There are a number of ways to do that. But one of the ways to do it is simply set up a family LLC that can be later rolled into a trust. Any number of ways to start. You can do a spin through of trust. You can do an educational trust for your children or your grandchildren.
[00:22:36] You can actually skip your children and set it up for your grandchildren to give it a year or two, to not give it a year or two, to give it a decade or two to grow. Tons of ways to create value for the family unit.
[00:22:50] Speaker 3: Yeah, that, so that makes complete sense. And Jack, just to kinda wrap things up, I found you, and we’ve been talking for a while now, but I found you guys through your newsletter, the co letter, [00:23:00] talk to our audience about what you’re up to there. Kinda what started that project, what are you guys doing and what kind of led to that point.
[00:23:08] About The Co Letter Newsletter
[00:23:08] Speaker 4: I think what led to it more than anything is just my general frustration with what I found online. Present, company accepted. I think the stuff that you put out is great. But it’s a frustration of, I guess a combination of bad information for business owners and new business owners in particular a lack of substance and an overwhelming amount of clickbait.
[00:23:37] That at my advanced stage, I absolutely hate, if you want to help someone, help them. Everything doesn’t have to revolve around me listening to something for eight minutes just to get click baited at the end or whatever. And so we thought that there was an opportunity [00:24:00] there with my youngest son who had gotten outta the military is finishing his economics degree.
[00:24:07] And I just sensed that there was an opportunity there to give people substance without click bait. And and I guess we were right because we started. Middle of February of this year, and I think yesterday we passed 110,000 subscribers. So it’s gotten a little out of control. I told Braden, my son, who’s a publisher that I would write for him.
[00:24:36] We publish we do template Tuesday then we do a shorter article on, on Thursdays, and then on Sundays it’s a little more laid back. Plus we do a dear co letter where people write in and ask us questions. And I answer those. But it’s been a fantastic experience. The other thing that it lets me do is take a lot of [00:25:00] things that I’ve done for the last 40 years and hand those out anonymously.
[00:25:07] And hope that it helps people. But also it’s an education for my son who’s a publisher. And for my other two sons. I have one that’s still in the military and then I have one that works at a major bank. And so this is getting a lot of stuff out of my head and out there to benefit other people, but also to help my sons as well.
[00:25:30] Speaker 3: Yeah, and it’s been super helpful. Just myself I’ll read every newsletter that comes out and every time I read it, I, it’s just kinda refreshing how, how transparent you are in, in, in giving actual, real data. And, honestly, this was my path in the same path I took in the tax savings world over eight years ago.
[00:25:48] I is, it was always this fluff of, hey, you could do this, but there was no direction on how to actually get there. And so that’s what really stemmed to how do I make complex subjects. Easy to [00:26:00] understand but also giving enough context that people can go and run with it and it’s exactly what you guys are doing from a legal side as well as, just an overall business side.
[00:26:08] So love what you guys are doing there. If anyone’s interested, definitely go sign up for their newsletter. You can go to the cole letter.beehive.com and I’ll have a link in the show notes that kind of gives details to that letter that you can sign up for as well. Again, it’s the co letter dot beehive, that’s BEE.
[00:26:26] HI v.com and you can find it there. And so Jack, and
[00:26:30] Speaker 4: it’s free. It’s free. So yeah we we do the templates and so if you want to do a premium subscription you get access to the templates hundreds of them at this point, I think we’re up to about 20 for the year, but we’ve got a lot more to come that I’ve developed over the last 38 years in practicing law.
[00:26:51] Yeah, that’s, it’s hope. Hopefully people get to put ’em to use and save themselves some money and save themselves some angst. [00:27:00]
[00:27:00] Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely. Jack, this has been such an insightful conversation and we’ve talked about family office, we talked about different structures, and really we talked about just having a roadmap for anyone caring about governance, sharing their values with their family.
[00:27:12] So thank you for breaking it down so clearly. And for our viewers and listeners, check out the co letter. To read Jack and Braden’s full article that we talked about today and follow along. If you want future articles, just like what we talked about today, breaking those down. Again, that’s the co letter.beehive.com.
[00:27:28] And if you found this helpful, don’t forget to hit subscribe. Hit that like button and share it with a business owner who’s sick of paying too much in tax. And if you want help from our team of tax professionals implementing so many strategies, visit tax elm.com or click the link into the description for a free discovery call.
[00:27:44] We are helping people like you. Legally, you lower your tax bill every single day. Jack, thanks for coming on.
[00:27:50] Speaker 4: Thank you very much, Mike. Appreciate it.
