Suze Orman and trusts are a thing. Orman has called the revocable living trust a must-have for every American family regardless of net worth. Here's the case she's been making, and what it means in practice.
Suze Orman and Trusts
Suze Orman has written and spoken about revocable living trusts for more than two decades. Her position hasn't changed. A will, she argues, is not enough.
A will only activates after passing, has to go through probate court before a single asset goes out, and becomes public record the moment it is filed. A revocable living trust does none of those things. It takes effect immediately, allows a named successor trustee to step in the moment the grantor becomes incapacitated or passes, and distributes assets privately without any court involvement.
In her post Revocable Living Trust — Do You Need One?, Orman walks through the mechanics in plain terms. A trust has three roles: the grantor who creates it, the trustee who manages the assets inside it (often the grantor during their lifetime), and the beneficiary who ultimately receives those assets.
The grantor retains full control. The trust is revocable, meaning it can be amended or dissolved at any time. Assets such as real estate, bank accounts, and investment accounts are retitled into the trust's name. Retirement accounts—IRAs, 401(k)s—remain outside the trust but can name it as a beneficiary.
Orman has been direct about the incapacity angle, which she considers very important. In A Hard Topic for Couples, she argues that the greater oversight is not planning for what happens when you pass—it's failing to plan for what happens if you can no longer manage your own affairs while still alive. A will is silent on that question. A revocable living trust is not. The incapacity clause built into every living trust designates who steps in, under what conditions, and with what authority, before any court has to get involved.
Probate Is the Problem Orman Keeps Coming Back To
A through-line across all of Orman's writing on this subject is probate. In Trust vs. Will, she describes probate as time-consuming, costly, and public. When someone passes with only a will, that document must be submitted to probate court. A judge validates it. An executor is formally appointed. Creditors are notified. Fees accumulate. In many states, this process takes twelve to twenty-four months and costs between three and eight percent of the gross estate value in attorney and court fees, regardless of how simple the estate is.
The privacy dimension is a point Orman returns to repeatedly. A will filed in probate becomes a public document. Anyone—family members with grievances, creditors, business competitors, or strangers—can request a copy and see exactly who received what.
A trust never enters public record. The successor trustee follows the instructions in the trust document and distributes assets directly, with no court supervision and no public disclosure. For families with any complexity—blended households, estranged relatives, significant assets, or simply a preference for privacy—this distinction is substantial.
In a July 2024 podcast episode covered by GOBankingRates, Orman responded to a caller whose attorney had advised against bothering with a living trust. Her response was characteristic:
"There is no downside of having a living revocable trust," she said. "There are many, many upsides to it."
She named three specifically—financial protection in the event of disability, the ability to avoid probate court, and the flexibility to modify the trust's terms at any point during the grantor's lifetime.
What It Means for Your Family
Orman's consistent argument is that the revocable living trust is not a tool reserved for wealthy families. It is, in her framing, more valuable for families with modest estates, because those are the households that can least afford to lose five to ten percent of their assets to probate fees.
A family with a $400,000 home and $150,000 in savings does not have the financial cushion to absorb $30,000 or more in avoidable court costs. The trust eliminates those costs entirely.
Orman also emphasizes that life events are the clearest triggers for creating a trust: getting married, buying a home, having children, starting a business. Each of those moments introduces assets or dependents that need formal protection. Waiting for a more convenient time is the most common reason families find themselves in probate court.
SimplyTrust, Suze Orman and Trusts
We think Orman's core argument holds up: probate is a process that costs time, money, and privacy, and a properly funded revocable living trust avoids it entirely. Our Probate Cost Calculator enables families to estimate exactly what probate would cost for their estate in their state—attorney fees, executor fees, court costs, and estimated timeline. For many families, the number is large enough to make the decision straightforward.
Our Trust vs. Will Calculator walks through the same comparison Orman makes in her writing—factoring in estate size, state laws, and family structure to show which approach makes the most sense for a given situation.
For families who have determined that a trust is the right move, our Revocable Trust Builder creates a state-specific document online. A pour-over will can be created alongside it to catch any assets that fall outside the trust.
Our Financial Power of Attorney and Healthcare Power of Attorney address the incapacity scenario that Orman argues is so important. A trust that is funded and a power of attorney that is signed solves the problem Orman has been describing for twenty-plus years: the family that thought they had a plan and found out too late that they only had a wish.