A living trust is a written legal document through which your assets are placed into a trust for your benefit during your lifetime and transferred to designated beneficiaries upon your death by your chosen representative. It can help you avoid probate, protect your privacy, and save you money. It is very important for the property to be in the name of the trust and not in the individual decedent.

A will is a written legal document with a plan of distribution of your assets upon your death. Your executor oversees the process, which nothing in your will takes effect until after you die. 

Probate is the legal process for distributing a deceased person's property to their heirs and beneficiaries and settling debt.

Probate rarely benefits your beneficiaries; instead, it will cost them money and time. Probate makes sense only if your estate will have complicated problems, such as many debts that can't easily be paid from the property left behind.

Conservators have court-ordered authority and responsibility to manage the affairs of those who can no longer provide properly for their personal needs, medical care, shelter, or physical health.