Madgett LawMinneapolis · Minnesota

Trusts & Estate Planning

Minnesota trust and estate planning attorney for revocable living trusts, wills, probate avoidance, asset protection, and dynasty trusts. Message us for a consultation.

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An estate plan isn’t paperwork. It’s deciding who gets taken care of, on your terms, with as little cost, delay, and public exposure as you can manage.

Do I need a trust, or is a will enough? Should my house go into a trust? Someone recommended a trust in another state; is that right for me? The answers turn on the details of Minnesota law, and they’re different for a single home than for a multi-generational plan.

From our office in the IDS Center in downtown Minneapolis, we serve clients across the Twin Cities metro and Greater Minnesota.

What We Do

  • Revocable Living Trusts: A revocable trust can keep your home and other assets out of probate, plan for incapacity, and control how and when your beneficiaries receive their inheritance, without a public court proceeding.
  • Wills & Powers of Attorney: The foundation of any plan. Who inherits, who decides, and who acts for you if you can’t.
  • Trust Funding: The step most people miss. A trust controls only the assets titled in its name. We prepare and record the deeds and transfers that put assets into it.
  • Probate Avoidance: Minnesota transfer-on-death deeds, beneficiary designations, and trusts, coordinated with each other.
  • Dynasty & Multi-Generational Trusts: Long-term trusts that pass wealth through generations — under Minnesota law now permitting trusts that last up to 500 years.
  • Asset Protection Planning: Structures set up early, with a straight read on what Minnesota law does and does not allow, and on where an out-of-state trust helps and where it doesn’t.
  • Trust Modernization & Decanting: Fixing or updating an old, inflexible irrevocable trust so it fits your family as it is now.
  • Homestead & Property Planning: Handling the Minnesota homestead rules when your house goes into a trust. A properly handled revocable trust can keep your homestead property-tax classification, but only if the right application is filed with your county assessor.

Sometimes a transfer-on-death deed does the job for less than a trust, and an out-of-state “trust haven” may not deliver what it promises to a Minnesota resident. We’ll tell you when that’s the case.

What To Bring

A list of what you own and how each piece is titled, including your home. Any will, trust, or power of attorney you already have. Your current beneficiary designations. And a plain answer to the question that matters most: who do you want taken care of, and how?

Learn More

Talk To Us

Whether it’s your first plan, an update to an old one, or a second look at a trust someone else recommended, we start with what you’re trying to accomplish and your options under Minnesota law. Use the Message Us button or call 612-470-6529.

Common questions

Do I need a trust, or is a will enough?

It depends on your goals. A will alone still passes your estate through probate — a public, court-supervised process. A revocable living trust can keep your home and other assets out of probate, plan for incapacity, and control how and when your beneficiaries receive their inheritance. For a single home and a simple plan, a Minnesota transfer-on-death deed may do the job more cheaply. We match the tool to your actual situation rather than sell you a one-size product.

Does putting my house in a trust lower my Minnesota property taxes or protect it from creditors?

A trust does not, by itself, do either. A properly handled revocable trust can keep your homestead property-tax classification — but only if you file the right application with your county assessor. And a revocable trust does not shield your home from your own creditors during your life. These are exactly the details that do-it-yourself trust kits get wrong. We walk through the Minnesota homestead rules with you before any title changes hands.

Should I set up my trust in South Dakota or another 'trust-friendly' state?

Sometimes it helps; often it is oversold. Out-of-state trusts can offer self-settled asset protection and no state income tax that Minnesota does not — but whether those benefits actually reach a Minnesota resident, against Minnesota creditors and the Minnesota Department of Revenue, is a much harder question. And Minnesota law recently caught up on trust duration. We give you a fact-specific comparison before anyone sells you a destination.

How much does estate planning cost at Madgett Law?

It depends on the complexity of your plan — a straightforward will-and-trust package costs far less than a multi-generational or asset-protection structure. We discuss fees openly at the initial consultation so you can make an informed decision before committing.

What happens if I become incapacitated and don't have a plan?

Without an adequate power of attorney or a funded trust, your family may have to ask a Minnesota court to appoint a conservator to manage your property — a public filing with notice, a hearing, and ongoing court oversight. A funded revocable trust and a durable power of attorney can let someone you choose step in privately, without a court proceeding.

From Understand Trusts

The firm's plain-English trust guides

Every statement checked against the statute before it is written, quoted verbatim, and dated. Nothing for sale there.

Setting one upChanging an Irrevocable Minnesota Trust: Five Statutory Doors, and What Each One CostsConsent, unanticipated circumstances, an uneconomic trust, a mistake, or a tax objective. Only the first turns on everyone's agreement, and one carries a clear-and-convincing burden — and a trust's own terms cannot close the court's power under any of them.Sources checked 2026-09-06BackgroundA Revocable Trust Does Not Stop Your Creditors — and Skipping Probate Skips the Deadline That Would Have Stopped ThemMinnesota law subjects revocable trust property to the settlor's creditors during life and at death. The probate claim bar that cuts creditors off after four months belongs to probate, and a trust that avoids probate does not carry it along.Sources checked 2026-09-06Setting one upIn Minnesota a Trustee Can Rewrite an Irrevocable Trust Alone, on 60 Days' Notice, Without a JudgeDecanting pours one irrevocable trust into another with better terms — or into the same trust with modified terms. Minnesota's statute needs no beneficiary consent and no court approval, and a spendthrift clause does not block it. What limits it is a list of prohibitions in subdivision 15, not the word "irrevocable."Sources checked 2026-09-06

All guides at understandtrusts.com →

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