wildman,

The trust is a good idea. The real value is not avoiding probate, but that a well drawn trust is much much harder to challenge in court than a will. You situation sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen, so anything you can do now to avoid long drawn out litigation is a good idea.

But they still need a will. If the property is not "in" the trust, and there is no will, the state's "intestate" (without a will) inheritance law will decide who get what. You want to have as much as possible "in" the trust, but there always is something left out. They just need a simple will that, in layman's terms, says "everything goes to the trust." People will often forget to re-title their real estate as being owned by the trust. Same with registering stocks, bank accounts and so on. If it is not "legally" owned by the trust and there is no will, the state could end up deciding who gets what.

Having been there, I strongly urge the advice a knowledgeable attorney to set up everything. States have some strange rules about who can be trustees, executors and so on. Sometimes if you don't live in state, they don't let you serve. Don't want to mess that up. Sometimes there are also rules about what must be established first, the trust or the will. There are also income tax advantages that can be had, but you have to know what you are doing to satisfy the IRS's ever changing rules. Here in Maryland, if you take maximum advantage of the IRS rules, you get taxed more by the State. Go figure.

And while you are doing all this, think about setting up durable powers of attorney for health care and "advance directives"/"living wills. Even worse then fighting over property is fighting over termination of life support. . .

Not cheery topics to have to consider, but ignoring them doesn't help either...

Hope this helps.