Make your own living trust

What this book actually teaches

Make Your Own Living Trust by Denis Clifford, published by Nolo Press in multiple editions with a 2019 revision, is a legal self-help manual designed to walk individuals through the process of creating a revocable living trust without hiring an attorney for the full drafting process. Clifford is a long-tenured Nolo author who has written on estate planning topics for decades; the book reflects Nolo's foundational premise that legal processes amenable to standardization should be accessible to laypeople who are willing to invest time in understanding the underlying rules.

The book's central argument is that a revocable living trust is the most useful estate planning tool for most middle-class Americans because it accomplishes three things that a will alone cannot: it avoids probate (the court-supervised process for transferring assets at death, which is public, slow, and expensive), it allows incapacity planning (the trust continues to function if the grantor becomes unable to manage affairs, without requiring a court-appointed conservator), and it provides immediate transfer of assets to beneficiaries without the delays probate introduces. Clifford does not claim living trusts are appropriate for everyone — he is explicit that simple estates may not need the complexity — but he makes a well-grounded case for why they are underused relative to their utility.

The mechanics Clifford covers include how to create the trust document, how to name the trustee and successor trustee, how to fund the trust (transferring assets into it, which is the step most people either skip or execute incorrectly), and how to update or revoke the trust if circumstances change. The funding chapter is particularly important: a living trust that has not been properly funded provides none of the probate-avoidance benefits, and Clifford explains the asset-by-asset process — real estate, financial accounts, vehicles, business interests — with the specificity needed to actually complete the transfers.

Clifford also covers coordination between the living trust and other estate planning instruments. He discusses pour-over wills (which catch assets not transferred to the trust during life and funnel them to it at death), durable powers of attorney (which operate alongside the trust for assets the trust doesn't cover), and health care directives. The book is not a comprehensive estate planning guide — it does not address estate tax planning for high-value estates, Medicaid planning, or special needs trusts — but it correctly positions those as outside the scope of the tool it is teaching.

The 2019 edition updates the legal information for current rules and includes Clifford's standard Nolo appendix of state-specific requirements and forms. The CD/download component that earlier editions included for form generation has evolved with digital distribution, though the legal content remains the core.

This is for individuals with straightforward estates — primary residence, financial accounts, retirement accounts, personal property — who want to plan ahead without paying attorney rates for the drafting process and are willing to invest a weekend in understanding the mechanics.

The weaknesses are those inherent to legal self-help. The book cannot account for unusual assets, complex family situations (blended families, children with special needs, business succession), or state law variations that fall outside the general rules Clifford covers. Readers with any of these complications should use the book for orientation and then work with an estate planning attorney for the actual documents. The book is also a snapshot of law as of publication — estate tax exemptions, Medicaid rules, and state probate procedures change; readers should verify current thresholds before acting.

For straightforward estates, Make Your Own Living Trust is one of the most reliable self-help legal guides available — practical, accurate within its scope, and honest about where professional help is warranted.

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About Denis Clifford

Read more from Denis Clifford and explore the full bibliography on ClearValue Books.