Estate legal question--Trust & Wills? ?

Question

Let's say Mr X creates a revocable Trust in year 2005 and puts all of his assets into the Trust, which specifies that after his death, those assets go to Mr A. Then in year 2006, Mr X writes out and signs a Last Will and Testament specifying that all of his assets go to Mr B upon his death---but he fails to include language in the Last Will and Testament that the 2005 Trust is to be null and void, being superseded by the Last Will and Trust. He dies in 2007. Who gets the assets, Mr A, or Mr B, and why? Or will the courts find his estate to be effectively intestate, so that all his assets go to Mr C, his surviving immediate family?

Answer 1

Any will executed after the trust would only cover assets that remained out of the trust, i.e., after-acquired property.  Assets in trust at death are not part of the probate estate that would be accessible by will. In fact, a will, by itself, may not be sufficient to nullify a trust, even if it did say, "this will is intended to void and nullify the 2005 trust".

Mr. A would get the benefit of the trust and Mr B would get the benefit of the will. A good estate plan would include a "pour-over will" so that all after-acquired assets would also go to the trust, after death of X, to be distributed according to its terms (i.e., to Mr. A).  

Answer 2

A Revocable Trust that has NOT been revoked should still stand.  All his other assets should be covered by his latest will.

At no point would he be considered intestate, even though he may have conflicting wills.These wills do not cancel each other, the later will simply fails to address the trust issue.

Depending on the complexity of his estate and contentions of his heirs, a case like this will probably end up in probate court.

Answer 3

The whole property will go to B.