It's hard to believe but true there are many people who think that simply signing a trust agreement will sidestep the complicated process of probate. It is certainly unbelievable because this notion is far from realistic, and yet even smart, educated people fall prey to this belief. Years of research and analysis by legal experts have clearly established that trust agreements are unsuccessful at least 50 percent of the time.

Gist of it all is that effective estate planning does not mean signing the trust alone.

Multiple reasons contribute to such effects. Trusts fail more often than not since the assets were never transferred under the control of the trust. In addition, selection of wrong trustees also contributes largely to the high failure rates of the trusts.

But hang on, there's more! There are other important reasons for this common occurrence, reasons which are more serious than those already mentioned. It's a fact that in the majority of cases, the trustees or the settler have little or no understanding of the numerous benefits they could have received had they only done some serious estate management planning. Not only that, they've never considered hiring an experienced probate attorney to help guide them through the process and avoid the complications that emerge along the way. Wise decisions are at the heart of successful trust and estate management planning, and the lack of such wisdom inevitably leads to failure.

Don't underestimate the importance of choosing the best estate planning attorney available. One of the common mistakes people make when they need assistance with estate planning is to get involved with a virtual door-to-door trust salesman disguised as an estate attorney, who gives only boilerplate advice on trusts. More often than not, these relationships end in disaster for the client. Without experienced, thoughtful consideration of the client's true needs, these phony trusts, as well as the trust planning attorney, are doomed to fail.