A revocable trust, or revocable living trust (RLT), is an agreement where the grantor retains the power to modify, amend, or terminate the trust at any time.
Key features of an RLT:
You retain complete authority over the assets, serving as the initial trustee and beneficiary during your lifetime.
Upon your death, the trust assets transfer to beneficiaries under the administration of your successor trustee, bypassing probate court entirely.
Because you retain the power to revoke the trust, assets are fully exposed to your creditors and legal judgments.
The RLT is ignored for tax purposes. Income is reported on your personal return (Form 1040) under grantor trust rules ( IRC §671), and the trust corpus is included in your gross estate for estate tax purposes ( IRC §2038).