real estate. It used to be that you had to have a trust to get your real estate to your kids without going through a probate process in Utah. I have no idea what Utah attorneys are charging to prepare a simple TOD deed, but it is universally going to be significantly less than doing a trust. My trust package for married couples starts at $3800. I charge $100 plus the recording fee to draft a deed.

I'm not a Utah licensed attorney. My parents, however, do live in Utah, and I've participated in their estate planning (using a licensed Utah attorney where needed). I do practice in a state (Missouri) where it's possible to put a beneficiary designation on any asset of any type (yes, you can put a beneficiary designation/TOD on your toaster or your bathroom rug in Missouri). Utah is moving towards becoming more like Missouri.

Talk to a competent Utah attorney about what is possible in the state now. Hopefully you can find one that will lay out the options and doesn't artificially push the most expensive option (trust) on you. Generally if you can TOD your assets with titles/registered ownership under state law, you don't need a trust unless there are other factors at play (see below). Generally you have to be able to, under applicable state law, put a TOD beneficiary designation on 3 categories of assets: Real estate, vehicles, and financial accounts. Some people have a 4th category: business interests.

In my state, you do a beneficiary deed for real estate (just another name for a TOD deed), POD (pay on death) on bank accounts, beneficiary designations for brokerage accounts, IRAs, life insurance, and 401Ks, and TODs on vehicle titles. You can also make a beneficiary assignment of tangible personal property (other stuff, including your toaster and bathroom rug). You can do a beneficiary assignment of your shares of stock in a corporation or membership interest in your LLC.

Most of that stuff you can do on your own. You don't need an attorney to add a POD to your bank accounts or get a beneficiary assigned to your 401K. You don't need an attorney to go to the DMV and add a TOD to your car title. All you need help with is the TOD Deed for your real estate. And that's an inexpensive job for the attorney.

I just don't know if you can put a TOD on a vehicle in Utah. I am 100% positive that you can put a POD on financial accounts and now, as of 2018, do a TOD deed for real estate. I just don't remember about vehicles. Even if Utah doesn't use TODs on vehicles, you can add a child as a joint owner, or you can probably use a shorted probate process and/or an affidavit of death to get them to the kids without a full probate. I don't know that a trust is justified for just vehicles.

So why would you do a trust if you are able to TOD everything (depending on your state law)? Because you have minor children. Minors are defective owners in many circumstances who can't enter into a contract. If you leave your house to a minor child with a TOD deed, they can't sell it. They'll need to have someone go to court and get authority to sell as guardian/conservator. Leaving assets outright to minor children just doesn't work well, so that's a reason to use a trust

General the most common type of estate planning trust (revocable living trust) doesn't provide asset protection from creditors while you are alive and well. However, in most states, you can trigger the trust to provide partial or full asset protection upon the death or disability of either spouse. As far as I know, in every state you can leave your assets to the kids via a trust and completely protect their inheritance from your kids creditors, which would include divorcing spouses. Once you reach a certain level of net worth (My suggestion is between $1million to $1.5 million) you need to start considering a trust.

A third reason to do a trust is because you have a defective beneficiary. In addition to minor children, it's not a good idea (or even possible in some cases) to leave assets to someone with a mental disability, someone who has a substance abuse or gambling problem, or who does not have financial discipline. Those are all reasons to do a trust.