Is a family trust worth it with $2M in assets and two grown children? A trust does three things no other document does. Here is what they are.
Is it worth setting up a family trust with $2M in assets? A trust skips probate court, stays private, and lets you control what happens after you die. A will goes through probate no matter what. A lady bird deed handles the house but does nothing for brokerage or retirement accounts.
Does a family trust avoid probate? Yes. The trustee you named is still in charge the day after you die. What happens to a family trust in divorce? Money left outright to a child is their money. Money held in a continuing trust with spendthrift protection stays titled in the trust name, where a divorcing spouse cannot reach it.
What happens after death depends on the document. A basic trust that distributes at death protects nothing. A continuing trust for each child protects everything. The guide at StepUpLaw walks through the difference.
Transcript
A question came in from someone with about two million dollars in assets and two grown children, one established and one still in college. They want to know whether setting up a trust is worth it or whether they are paying for something they could do another way.
That question has a real answer, and it is not yes or no. A trust does three things that no other document does. By the end of this you will know what those three things are, which families need them, and what happens to the families that skip them.
The first thing a trust does is keep the house and the accounts out of probate court. Probate is the process Florida uses to transfer title when someone dies. Even when there is a will, the will has to go through probate before a house can be sold or a brokerage account can be released. A trust skips that step because the trust already owns the assets. The trustee you named while you were alive is still in charge the day after you die, and they sign the transfer documents the same way they would have signed them the day before.
Florida has a fast-track probate called summary administration that works for estates under $150,000 in nonexempt assets. That threshold used to be $75,000, but the legislature raised it in 2026. If everything you own fits under that number, probate is a short process and a trust may not be necessary for probate avoidance alone. But if you own a house and a brokerage account and a retirement plan and a bank account, you are almost certainly over that line.
The second thing a trust does is stay private. When you file a will with the court, it becomes a public record. Anyone who wants to see what you left and to whom can walk into the clerk’s office or search the docket online. A trust is not filed with any court. The only people who see it are the people you name in it. For some families this does not matter. For others it matters a great deal.
The third thing a trust does is let you control what happens after you die. The person asking mentioned keeping an inheritance away from a child’s ex-spouse, and that is exactly what a trust can do. If you leave money outright to your daughter, it is her money. If she later gets divorced, that inheritance may be on the table. Florida law does treat inheritance as nonmarital property, but only if your daughter kept it separate. The moment she deposits an inheritance check into a joint account or uses it to pay the mortgage on a house titled in both names, that money gets mixed and can become marital property.
A trust avoids that trap by holding the inheritance in trust instead of handing it to your daughter outright. The money stays titled in the name of the trust. Your daughter is the beneficiary and the trustee can distribute funds to her, but she never owns the principal. A divorcing spouse cannot divide property that is not owned by either spouse. The same protection works against lawsuits, creditors, and a child’s own financial mistakes.
This protection is not automatic. It only exists if you draft the trust to include it. A basic revocable trust that says “distribute everything to my children at my death” gives them the money outright and protects nothing. You need language that keeps the inheritance in a continuing trust for each child, with a spendthrift provision that blocks creditors, and with your child serving as trustee so they still control their own funds. This is why the document itself matters more than the category of document.
The question underneath the original question is whether a will can do the same things. The answer is no. A will goes through probate, which means a court supervises it, which means delay, expense, and a public record. A will cannot hold an inheritance in trust after you die unless you draft a testamentary trust inside the will, and even then the trust has to be created through the probate process first. A revocable trust that is properly funded skips the court entirely.
Beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and life insurance do avoid probate. Those assets pass directly to whoever you named. But they also pass outright, with no creditor protection and no control over timing. If you name your twenty-two-year-old as the beneficiary of your IRA, they get the full balance when you die. If you want them to receive distributions over time, or if you want to protect that money from their own poor decisions, you need to name a trust as the beneficiary instead of naming the child directly.
Joint ownership with survivorship also avoids probate, but it creates its own problems. If you add your daughter to the deed on your house, she now owns half of it. If she gets sued, her half is exposed. If she dies before you do, her half may go to someone you did not choose. If she gets divorced, her half may be on the table. Survivorship solves one problem and creates three new ones.
The lady bird deed is a Florida-specific tool that avoids probate for real property without the risks of joint ownership. It keeps you in control while you are alive and passes the house to your children when you die. For a single house with no minor children and no spouse, a lady bird deed is often all a family needs on the real property side. But it does nothing for the brokerage account, the bank account, or the retirement plan. Those still need a trust or a beneficiary designation.
Here is how to think about it. If your only goal is to keep assets out of probate, and if all your assets are retirement accounts and a house, you can probably do it with beneficiary designations and a lady bird deed. If your goals include protecting your children’s inheritance from divorce or lawsuits, or controlling when they receive the money, or keeping the plan private, or planning for your own incapacity, you need a trust.
Two million dollars is well above the summary administration threshold. Two adult children, one of whom may still be figuring out their finances, is exactly the family that benefits from a continuing trust with spendthrift protection. The question is what happens to the two million if you skip this step.
The one thing to do this week is pull up every account statement you have and write down how each one is titled and who the beneficiary is. That list tells you where the gaps are. If you want to talk through what you find, the firm handles this work. The number is on the site.
Read the full guide at stepuplaw.com/florida-revocable-living-trust
Related reading and listening at StepUpLaw
- Does a Trust Avoid Probate in Florida? Only If Funded
- What Happens to a Trust in a Divorce in Florida?
- Lady Bird Deed vs. Living Trust in Florida (2026)
- Episode 9, Are There Downsides to a Living Trust in Florida
- Episode 4, Lady Bird Deed or Living Trust for a Florida Home
- Episode 27, Can You Sell a House in Probate in Florida
Related guides
- Does a Trust Avoid Probate in Florida? Only If Funded
- What Happens to a Trust in a Divorce in Florida?
- Lady Bird Deed vs. Living Trust in Florida (2026)
Stepping Up is hosted by Kevin D. Klagge, Esq., Fla. Bar No. 99502. Attorney Kevin Klagge represents families, businesses, and international clients in estate and tax planning, business structuring, and international law, with a focus on Florida legal tools. He litigates estate and business issues in court. Episodes are general information about Florida law, not legal advice, and listening does not create an attorney-client relationship.
