@qbteachmt   

What I see are the insurance licensees who rent a room in the retirement-community library and hold a seminar on estate planning, calling themselves a “leading expert.” They frighten people into setting up living trusts, but then make sure they are funded, because they offer to help with that and then tell customers that their investments are poor and that better choices are available. Then they sell them an annuity with a lower-rated company.

But I can sympathize with @gn , and the delays of New York probate. Most states have the Uniform Probate Code, which makes life easy when it comes to death. But New York and California are stuck with archaic laws that give probate a bad name. And where are much of the major national media located? New York and California – so local reporter calls local lawyer, and writes a story about how living trusts are the greatest thing since sliced bread, and spreads it across the country.

There are some estate planners in New York, though, who seem to be fixated with putting real estate into life estates with remainder interests. They don’t do the tax returns, though, when the property is sold.