One benefit of avoiding probate is you can save a considerable amount of time and cost. It can take months or even longer to appoint the executor. Unlike a trust, where someone passes away and the trustees have the power to make the distribution according to your trust or other non-probate assets, for instance, life insurance claims are submitted to the life insurance company, there can be time delays in having your estate distributed. If it has to go through the probate process, it will depend on what court. With some courts it could be years. There were some in Kings County in New York City where nothing was going on for about a year because the surrogate’s court judge ended up being removed. This is something you need to keep in mind regarding the time and cost involved to probate in the state. You can still maintain control of your assets by avoiding probate. It’s private. The probate process is public. Living trusts, for the most part, are private documents. It can avoid will contests by avoiding probate. You can avoid Medicaid recovery. When someone passes away in a nursing home, there is no Medicaid recovery against non-probate assets. About ten years ago, they changed the law in New York State for about 11 months. It didn’t make any sense. Currently, when someone passes away that’s been in a nursing home on Medicaid, the county will file a claim against that person’s estate in surrogate’s court against the probate estate. There is no claim to be filed against non-probate assets. As I said, a benefit of avoiding probate is setting up a trust.