Ever seen families fall apart because someone passed away and their financial house wasn’t in order?

In our latest video, we share the trust lessons that save money, time, and relationships. Here’s the one most people skip:

“A trust isn’t one-and-done… life changes, so your trust should too.” — Wealth Twins

If you treat your trust like a living document and pair it with an investing system that steadily grows assets, you’ll protect your people and your peace.

Let’s get into it.

The Order of Operations (That Actually Works)

Don’t start with documents—start with assets and systems.

In our episode, we talk about setting up our own trusts and realizing it takes longer than you think, because it forces real decisions: who manages investments vs. who cares for kids, backup and backup-to-the-backup, and how life events change everything..

It is important to not start these conversations with documents, but with assets and systems.

Takeaway: List and organize your assets (cash, brokerage, retirement, real estate, business interests). Then title them correctly or add beneficiaries where appropriate. Lastly, sync your trust to reflect today, not five or 10 years ago.

What Goes in a Trust vs. What Gets a Beneficiary

Not all accounts have to be titled the same way.

However, if you have anything of value, you may want to secure it by putting it into a trust like artwork, property, and even a business.

For some assets, and depending on your situation, it may be easier to protect the asset through beneficiary designations.

The goal isn’t to shove everything into the trust—it’s to move assets to the right place, in the fastest, cleanest, lowest-friction way when something happens. That usually means:

Avoiding probate where possible

Preserving tax advantages on retirement accounts

Matching control to intent (who manages vs. who receives, and when)

And managing real-life cases (minors, special-needs planning, blended families, and creditor issues).

​Takeaway: Talk to a pro. The right mix is personal. Before you change titles or beneficiaries, book a consult with an estate-planning attorney to tailor this to your state law, tax situation, and family structure.

Helpful questions to bring to the attorney:

Given our assets, what belongs titled to the trust vs. handled by beneficiary?

Should our trust ever be the beneficiary of retirement accounts and if so, how should it be drafted?

Any spendthrift/special-needs/blended family provisions we should add?

What’s the cleanest way to handle contingency ladders (primary → secondary → tertiary) across accounts?

The “Living” in Living Trust

A revocable living trust only protects your family if it’s maintained not just written. We treat ours like a simple system with:

Roles by strength: the best person to manage investments isn’t always the best person to care for children. We assign role-specific people and build contingency ladders

Event triggers: divorce/remarriage, a new child, a home or business purchase/sale - each event triggers an immediate review.

To help with keeping your assets updated you may want to do a quick audit.

Think of the audit as the heartbeat that keeps everything in sync between big life events.

The 15-Minute Audit

Pull: bank, brokerage, retirement, life insurance, property.

Spot check: Does each show the right title (trust vs. personal) or current beneficiary?

Roles sanity check: Do the named people still match reality?

Trigger scan: Did any life event happen since the last check? If yes, flag for an update.

Takeaway: Staying on top of your documents and assets helps to maintain a friction less plan. When something happens, assets move fast, instructions are clear, and no one argues about “what you would have wanted.”