A client called to say he got a direct mail invite to a living trust dinner seminar.

At the seminar, act 2 would be some awesome chicken vesuvio. But, in act 1, the presenter promised to reveal several important provisions that should be in every trust, so the trust didn’t “fail.”

My client wanted to know if the trust I did for him a few weeks ago had “the 11esssential things” that the mailer said were needed in all living trusts.  I reassured my client that it had these provisions. My client said he could go to a living trust dinner once every week, if he had the fortitude to suffer through the presentation.

The worst living trust seminars are put on by annuity sales guys.  They will try to get you to invest every spare cent you have, including all IRA money, in annuities.  You never meet with an attorney. These are called “trust mills” and you want to avoid them.  Some trust mills get sued.

Attorneys put on living trust seminars too.  Most seminars like to use the words “nursing home,” “medicaid” and “probate” a lot.  Most attorney seminars are average at best. The seminar attorneys tend to charge quite a bit for their trusts. That’s because they have to factor the cost of feeding dinner to 40 people into it.