Your military pension, Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) and survivor benefits follow federal rules. Your Colorado home and other privately owned property do not. If you retire outside Colorado but keep real estate in Colorado Springs, you may need a separate plan for those assets.
A revocable living trust can help manage and transfer assets placed in it outside probate. Federal rules still govern your military benefits separately.
A trust can keep Colorado property out of probate
Colorado real estate can pass outside probate in several ways, including through a revocable living trust, a recorded beneficiary deed or joint tenancy with right of survivorship. For military retirees who want one plan to hold and manage that property over time, a revocable living trust can be especially useful.
When you properly transfer property into the trust, it can generally pass under its terms without going through probate. If you later retire in another state, real estate held in the trust can avoid probate, while other transfer procedures may apply to real estate outside the trust.
Creating the trust alone is not enough. It only covers property that you transfer into it.
Your military benefits follow different rules
Some federal benefits follow their own rules, including:
- Your Thrift Savings Plan (TSP)
- Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) coverage
- Unpaid military retired pay
A trust does not automatically control these benefits. That makes it important to review your estate documents along with your beneficiary designations, or the people named to receive those benefits. Your deed, trust documents and federal benefit records should all reflect your current wishes.
Your civilian assets deserve their own plan
Years of military service can leave you with benefits and other assets governed by different systems. A firm with more than 30 years of military legal experience may understand both systems. That background can help show how your deed and estate documents fit with federal benefit rules. Reviewing the name on your Colorado deed, what assets it holds and who you named on federal accounts can reveal gaps before they cause problems for your family.