You stay in charge
A revocable living trust is a document you control. While you have capacity, you can change it. You can undo it. You are usually the trustee.
You still live in the house. You still use the accounts. The trust is not a locked vault. It is a set of instructions, plus a title.
What it actually does
Property titled in the trust follows the trust. For a house in Utah, that is how a family stays out of the district court.
A will does not do that job. The will still matters. It is the backup, and it is where you name a guardian if you have minor kids.
Signing is not funding
If the deed stays in your name, the house is not in the trust. I prepare the deed into the trust as part of the plan. The first property’s recording is included.
Banks and investments are different. You get written instructions, then a follow-up email sequence. I don’t log into your accounts and move them.
I wrote about what an unfunded trust actually is. The step-by-step is on Fund Your Trust.
What it does not do
It does not replace the beneficiary form on a 401(k), an IRA, or a life insurance policy. Those pay the person named on the form. I wrote about what actually controls those accounts.
It does not, by itself, erase taxes. It does not name a guardian. The pour-over will catches property left outside the trust, and it names who should raise your kids.
Where it sits in the plan
The trust is one piece of the complete plan. You also get the will, the financial powers of attorney, the health care documents, and the funding work.
Individual plans start at $2,500. Joint plans start at $3,500. The full list is on the pricing page. The overview is estate planning.
If you want to talk it through, book a consultation. I’m licensed in Utah, Arizona, and Texas. A house here and a place you still own in one of those states can be one plan.