Louisiana living trusts & estate documents

Living trust law in Louisiana

A revocable living trust holds your home, accounts, and other property during your life, you stay in full control as trustee and can change or revoke it any time, then passes it to your beneficiaries without probate when you're gone. In Louisiana, trusts are governed by the Louisiana Trust Code, La. R.S. 9:1721 et seq..

Avoiding probate in Louisiana

Probate in Louisiana is governed by the Louisiana Civil Code (testaments: art. 1570 et seq.; forced heirship: art. 1493 et seq.) and handled by the District Court, which handles what Louisiana calls successions. Louisiana successions in district court; independent administration available (C.C.P. art. 3396.1 et seq.).

Small succession by affidavit is available for the succession of a person who died domiciled in Louisiana leaving property with a gross value of $200,000 or less, valued as of the date of death (La. C.C.P. art. 3421, as amended by Acts 2026, No. 293 (HB 215), effective August 1, 2026; the limit was $125,000 before that date). The $125,000 limit now applies only to the ancillary succession of a person who died domiciled outside Louisiana, and the succession of a person who died at least twenty years before the affidavit qualifies whatever its value. Assets held in a funded living trust pass to your beneficiaries without probate, whatever the size of the estate. Many Louisiana homeowners set one up for that reason.

Estate and inheritance tax in Louisiana

Louisiana has no estate or inheritance tax. The separate federal estate tax reaches only estates above $15 million per person (2026, adjusted yearly), so most families never owe it.

Community property in Louisiana

Louisiana's legal regime is the community of acquets and gains (Civil Code arts. 2334 ff.). The joint trust preserves each asset's community or separate character and the surviving spouse's usufruct rights.

Signing your Louisiana documents

1. Sign the living trust. Louisiana notarial ceremony: signed before a notary public and two witnesses, with the words thus done and passed and the parish named as the venue.
2. Sign the will. Notarial testament under Civil Code art. 1576, as rewritten by Acts 2025, No. 30 (art. 1577 was repealed by that act): the will is prepared in writing, dated, executed before a Notary Public in the presence of two witnesses, and signed by the testator, each witness and the notary.
3. Sign the power of attorney. Sign your Power of Attorney (mandate) before a Notary Public and two witnesses in a single ceremony, all present together.
4. Sign the health care documents. Sign your Power of Attorney for Health Care and, when your plan includes one, your Declaration Concerning Life-Sustaining Procedures before a Notary Public and two witnesses, all present together in one ceremony, as Louisiana’s authentic-act forms provide.
5. Follow your package instructions. Your package includes page-by-page signing instructions written for Louisiana. Follow those as the authoritative guide.

Serving all of Louisiana

Answer the questionnaire from anywhere in Louisiana and download your completed documents in minutes: New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Shreveport, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Kenner, Bossier City, Monroe, Alexandria, Houma, Marrero, New Iberia, and every community in between.