You don´t. Do the paperwork before you travel. It may also come in handy in emergencies that occur while you are at your side of the pond.

Yes, it all has to be done ahead of time, otherwise you're out of luck. For the same reasons that you can't write a will after you've already died.

Another good reason for trusts is to avoid probate when you die. Who wants your estate to be nibbled away by government and court fees and lawyers salaries. Not to mention the delays for your heirs. The goal is to move your assets into the trust, so that when you die you have very little that is outside of the trust. It is the stuff outside of the trust that might require probate. But if you get that down small enough, then there is no probate. This varies from state to state. I can't remember what the no-probate limit is here in Colorado where I am, but we are under it. It's like $60,000 or something like that.

People should talk to a lawyer specializing in estate planning in their state. You can protect lots of stuff in a trust. For example, say your kid gets married to a scumbag. After you die, having left money to your kid, you do not want said scumbag to get ahold of it should they divorce, etc. You can set all that up. You can also set up things so that your kids inheritance can't be touched by others trying to get money from them in a lawsuit. Or you can set up things so that your kids, in their moment of irresponsibility, can't wildly spend all their inheritance on video games. Rental properties you own should be put in LLC's, then into the trust, to protect you from a renter suing and trying to get at your other assets.

Lot's of good stuff in this area of estate planning. Worthwhile for many things, not just for the stranded overseas topic this thread is about.

If you're going the whole kit and kaboodle - a family trust, wills, various powers of attorney, HIPPA forms, living wills, resuscitation instructions, special setups to protect your kids, LLC's, etc. expect to spend a couple thousand dollars for a lawyer to set all that up. A simple trust would be cheaper, but the other stuff is important too, especially as you get older.

haretig says it all.

Another couple advantages of trusts:

1.) wills and probate are public documents, trusts are not. The most famous example being Frank Sinatra, who had everything held in trust. No one in the public really knows how much he was worth when he died.

2) Trusts are not subject to court challenges and suits by disgruntled heirs---wills are, and going to Court is always expensive and to be avoided if possible.

I have probated the wills of 2 estates. No, you don't want to put your heirs through that.

There should be a clause in the trust to handle this if it is legal in your state. When I set my trust up, the attorney did it such that I listed major items (house, etc.) and small items were included by a blanket clause.

Gosh, in the back of my memory I seem to remember something in the trust paperwork that says things that we buy in our day to day lives automatically go into the trust. Like new TV sets, rifles, etc. I'm going to have to go back and look at our paperwork. It was about two years ago that we set this up, and already, I've forgotten some of the details!

Certain things have to be titled into the trust or owned by the trust - for example, we had to create new bank accounts that were owned by the trust and move our money into those accounts. Other things were specifically titled to the trust. Still other things, like some insurance policies have your spouse as primary beneficiary and the trust as secondary beneficiary.

But I do seem to remember some clause that put everyday purchases, including future ones, directly into the trust with no special handling/titling required. I've got to go look that up. Little details like that are important to know. Very important! I just asked my wife, and she said, yeah, she remembers something like that too. Maybe it was purchased items over some amount? So neither of us remember past the vague recollection that "there's something like that in there".

On my agenda for tomorrow - go find out FOR SURE! All this lawyer stuff is in a nice neat binder upstairs, and also electronic copies on thumbdrives that the lawyer gave us.

There are also some things the lawyer said to leave out of the trust. I think that included our older automobiles. Maybe because they are not worth that much, don't contribute significantly to the "outside the trust total" dollars that would require probate, thus not worth the effort to retitle them? There's a sheet of paper with all those explanations of why/why not in our binder. I'll check that too.

I do remember that out of state property owned will mandate probate in the state it's owned in, even if it's not worth much. We had some farm land in south Texas that we sold because of that. The only thing worthwhile there were the mineral rights (gas and oil is heavy down there). So we kept those mineral rights. I need to call the lawyer and see if out of state mineral rights will require probate. See, this thread has got me thinking about all kind of things I need to do! Thanks for starting it up Bingley! Although we have kind of deviated off from your original topic. Still, "stranded overseas" and "trusts" do go together, so it's not a total thread hijack.

Here in Maryland, the way used to cover personal property not identifiable as being in the trust is a "pour-over will." Basically, it says "anything not in the trust goes into the trust."

I have never heard or seen of a trust clause that automatically puts purchases in the trust, but every state has different rules. Some states, like Maryland, allow a trust to be set up "in perpetuity," that is, it can exist forever (with some restrictions that the trust must comply with). Other states adhere to the more traditional common law rule, basically limiting the trust to approximately 120 years.

While the story about the lady who died after being turned away turned out to be false, it does raise the issue of getting stranded while ill. Does travel medical insurance cover expenses incurred during for an unplanned treatment in a stopover country?

Yes, and the policies often will cover cost of medical evacuation back to the US. There are specialized companies that offer these policies. They do vary in what they cover, how much they pay etc. You can buy them online for just the period of your travel. I buy one every time I go overseas.

There is a company owned by a friend of mine called Global Guardian that will track you, get you to medical treatment if necessary, and get you back home in emergency situations. They evacuated more than 100 Americans after the Paris and Brussels terrorist attacks. They have networks of people in many countries. It may be worth checking out if you travel a good deal in high threat areas.

That may be what I'm thinking of. I know he covered it but not what the specific page was called.