Also, if a revocable living trust is not properly funded, maintained, and administered after death, the trust may be useless or even dangerous. If the trust is created by a married couple, it can be revoked or amended while both are alive and competent. A single person who creates a living trust can also revoke or amend it. Avoiding probate saves federal estate taxes. Avoiding probate does not save taxes.
Probate is the supervision of the distribution of a decedent's property by a court of law.
The probate system and probate avoidance have to do with state law and the manner in which property passes at death from a decedent to others. Federal estate taxes are determined by an entirely separate body of law which is contained in the Internal Revenue Code. Saving estate taxes has nothing to do with probate or the avoidance of probate. Saving taxes requires the intelligent use of certain techniques, whether or not probate is avoided. But sometimes the use of the probate process is better.