ROUND ONE: What Is a Revocable Trust?

Just like the light, boring jabs at the start of a fight, this is the part we have to get through first.

Let’s cover the legal basics.

A revocable trust is a legal structure that holds your assets during your lifetime, and directs what happens to those assets after your death.

Here’s the most important part, you are still in full control.

A revocable trust allows you to:

1. Buy and Sell Assets
2. Spend Money
3. Change or Revoke the trust at any time

Nothing is locked away, nothing is out of your hands.

You are still the boss, this just changes how things are organized and handled.

ROUND TWO: Why People LOVE Revocable Trusts 

Here come the uppercuts, this is where the heavyweight starts to show its strength in the ring.

Reason 1: They avoid probate 

Assets in a properly funded trust do not go through probate. Let’s pause. What is probate? Probate is the court process that handles your assets after death, it takes time, costs money, and becomes public.

Reason 2: They handle incapacity 

If something happens to you, someone you trust can step in and manage things without court involvement. That alone can save a family from a stressful and expensive situation.

Reason 3: Creates a sound structure, if setup properly

Instead of your beneficiaries getting everything outright, you can control how and when assets are distributed.

Reason 4: After-death protection for your beneficiaries

Without planning, an inheritance is exposed to divorce, lawsuits, creditors, and bad decisions. A properly designed trust can keep those assets protected.

ROUND THREE: Where Things Go Wrong

The self-proclaimed champ just showed some flashes of greatness, but now the overhyped contender starts to make an appearance.

There are a lot of people out there with revocable trusts. The problem is they are not properly set up.

I see this all the time, a client comes in with a revocable trust, paid thousands of dollars for it, no one explained how it worked, no one helped transfer assets into it, and no one followed through.

That trust is worth the paper it is written on.

Another major issue is lack of understanding.

If a client is not shown how to use the trust, how to access accounts, or how to actually operate it, it starts to feel complicated when it really is not.

The problem is not the trust itself.

The problem is how it was done.

ROUND FOUR: When a Revocable Trust Might Not Be Enough

Here is where the fight gets more technical.

A revocable trust is a strong tool, but it is not always the full answer.

Sometimes you need more.

Depending on your situation, that could include stronger asset protection planning, or different trust structures that handle tax issues more effectively.

I see this mistake a lot, people try to simplify things by adding a child to an asset, like a house.

It sounds easy.

But it can create major tax consequences later.

Good planning is not just about avoiding probate.

It is about control, protection, and making smart decisions for the long term.

ROUND FIVE: My Experience From the Ring

Let’s put the heavyweight on the ropes.

Over the years, I have spent a lot of time in the camp that revocable trusts are largely overrated and should be avoided in many situations. Yes, they throw some nice uppercuts, they avoid probate, they create structure, and they can provide protection for beneficiaries down the road. But for a long time, I did not think that was enough. Because during your lifetime, a revocable trust does not protect you. The general rule I tell clients is simple, if you can spend the money, change the terms, revoke the trust, and maintain full control, your creditors can reach those assets. So while revocable trusts look strong on the surface, especially after death, they do not provide that same level of protection while you are alive.

Then the tide turned, the contender stopped backing up and started landing real shots.

But here is where my thinking evolved. The more I practiced, the more I realized I was looking at it too narrowly. I was focused on lifetime protection, and while that matters, it is not the only goal. Most clients are not just worried about themselves, they are worried about what happens after they are gone. They want to know if their kids will lose the inheritance in a divorce, if it will be taken by creditors, or if it will disappear in a few years. That is where revocable trusts started to change my perspective. While they may not protect you during your lifetime, they can do a lot of heavy lifting after death. They create structure, they allow you to control distributions, and they can protect assets for beneficiaries in ways a will simply cannot. I also started to see the administrative side, families avoiding probate, staying out of court, and having a smoother process during an already difficult time. That matters. So my view shifted, not because revocable trusts suddenly became perfect, but because I started to see where they actually fit. They are not the answer to everything, but in the right situation, done the right way, they are a very strong tool. 

JUDGE’S DECISION: Champ or Overhyped Contender?

So what is the answer?

A revocable trust is not automatically the right move.

But when it fits your situation, and it is done correctly, it is one of the most powerful tools available.

The real question is not, do I need a trust?

The real question is, what do I want my plan to do?

If your goals include avoiding probate, protecting your family, and keeping control, then a revocable trust becomes a very strong contender.

And in the right situation, it is the champion. 

Ready to Step into the Ring?

If you are not sure whether a revocable trust makes sense for you, that is where we come in.

At The Law Offices of McKelvey Kargo, we do not use one size fits all planning.

We build plans based on your assets, your family, and your goals.

If you want to make sure your plan actually works when it matters, reach out and schedule a consultation.

As I reflect on the Christmas season, I find myself thinking about George Bailey. My wife has made it a tradition to watch It’s a Wonderful Life every Christmas morning while the kids channel their inner barbarians and tear into their presents. It’s chaos, joy, and nostalgia all wrapped into one, and somehow that movie always lands a little differently each year.

I’m sure countless people have offered thoughtful reviews of George Bailey and the film over the decades. At some point I even joked to myself, “The world is clearly waiting for Colt McKelvey’s take.” I’m kidding, mostly, but here it is anyway.

The conclusion I keep coming back to is simple: George Bailey never stood alone because he never lived that way. His community showed up for him because he had always shown up for them.

When I decided to start my own law practice, I had zero clients, almost no money in the bank, a beautiful and supportive wife, one daughter, and another on the way. My office was a single room above a real estate agency that graciously let me use the space for a few hundred dollars a month. I remember sitting there more than once wondering whether I had made a terrible mistake.

The questions were relentless and familiar to anyone responsible for a family: How am I going to feed my kids? How will we afford a reliable car? Does this crushing stress ever ease, or is this just life now?

And then something happened, something that, at the time, felt almost divine.

The phone started to ring.

People began calling and asking if I would look at their case. They weren’t offering much money, but they were offering trust. These weren’t friends of mine, and they certainly didn’t know me as some exceptional attorney. I wasn’t Matlock or Harvey Specter, still probably aren’t. These calls came from friends of my parents, Bill and Jeanne McKelvey. From people and institutions rooted in Cambria County, Johnstown, and the surrounding communities.

My father was the kind of man who, sometimes to a fault, would lend money to just about anyone or help them find it for whatever project they were chasing. Employees, lifelong friends, the local jeweler, and anyone else who came knocking. My mother taught generations of students at the local Vo-Tech and spent nearly her entire life in Johnstown. To this day, former students from twenty-plus years ago still walk into my office and say, “I remember your mom, Jeanne.”

I could list their accomplishments and character traits at length, but that’s not the point. The point is that they lived engaged lives. They invested in people. They showed up for their community long before there was any benefit to be gained from it.

And when their son took a risk and started from nothing, that same community showed up, not because of anything I had done, but because of what my parents had done long before me. People didn’t see a young lawyer trying to make a buck. They saw a chance to return a favor. To help build something in the same way they themselves had once been helped.

The principle is simple: community engagement matters.

What I am about to say may draw some criticism, but it needs to be said plainly. We should be far more intentional about who we choose to do business with. When we consistently bypass local professionals in favor of distant, volume-driven institutions, we reinforce a system that values efficiency over relationship and extraction over responsibility.

Stated bluntly, and unapologetically, when we abandon our community businesses, we allow the Potters of the world to win. And Potter does not return loyalty, grace, or care. He returns leverage.

Of course, there are exceptions. This is not an argument for blind localism or rigid rules. It is an argument for awareness. Every choice we make strengthens a model. The question is whether that model is rooted in community or detached from it.

Estate planning, in particular, should be done by someone who is part of your community, someone whose reputation is shaped by the same people you see at church, at school events, and at the grocery store. It should be an attorney with whom you can develop a real relationship. It does not need to be deep or personal, but it must be genuine.

Because estate planning is not just about documents. It is about judgment, accountability, and trust, and, those are built most reliably face to face, over time, within a shared community.
You will leave this earth for a heavenly kingdom. Your family will remain. When they are grieving and vulnerable, it will not be an institution that helps them, it will be a person, in their community, carrying out the plan you entrusted to them.

I want people to walk into my office in Canonsburg, and into Tonilyn’s office in Johnstown, and trust us with their legal work, but only if we have earned that trust through real involvement in the communities we serve.

That trust is never automatic. It must be built the same way it always has been: by showing up, by giving back, and by putting people ahead of profit. My parents understood that. George Bailey understood that. They invested in their communities long before there was anything to gain from doing so, and when the time came, the community responded in kind.

This is the model we strive for. Not extraction, but stewardship. Not scale, but service. Not the Potters of the world, who profit from distance and detachment, but the quiet faithfulness of people who live among those they serve.

So don’t settle for a Potter. Look for a George Bailey. Look for people like Bill and Jeanne McKelvey. And if we are doing our jobs well, if we are present, accountable, and committed, then, hopefully, you will find that same spirit in the work Tonilyn and I do every day.