A will might not be the best way

Q: I'm widowed with no kids and no home (I sold it and now rent). I want to leave all my property, about $500,000, to animal charities like PETA and the SPCA. I've been told that because I don't have a home or heirs, I don't need a living trust. But I've also been told that if I leave only a will and name an executor, there's no guarantee that person will execute my wishes. This should be such a simple, straightforward situation, but I'm uncertain. Do I need a trust or not?

A: As with lots of legal quandaries, there's no surefire answer. It all depends on your comfort level and how much you want to spend.

Gina Lera, an estate planning specialist with Downey Brand LLP, said a simple will and a living trust essentially yield the same result: carrying out your charitable wishes. But the difference is in cost and execution.

With a will, you'll pay very little now but a good chunk of your assets will be chewed up in probate costs after you're gone. With a trust, you'll pay more now to set it up, anywhere from $750 to $2,500, depending on how complicated, but you'll completely eliminate thousands in probate costs.

As Lera put it: The trust is more expensive to do now, "but it's nothing compared to the cost of probate." But as she noted, there's a distinct advantage to probate: The executor's actions in distributing your financial assets are overseen by the probate court, which will ensure that your designated charities get what you want them to get.

With a trust, the trustee is legally required to do so, but there's no court looking over his/her shoulder. However, she said, it's rare for trustees or executors to abuse their duties. Her advice: Go with a trust.

And for peace of mind, be selective in choosing whom you want to oversee your estate, whether it's in a will or a living trust.

But there's also a third option to consider: Make each charity a beneficiary. Take each of your assets, whether it's a checking account, stocks, a mutual fund or a life insurance policy, and designate the charity as the beneficiary. Upon your death, each account would go straight to the SPCA or whichever organization you've named.

Reach Claudia Buck at cbuck@sacbee.com.