Planning your estate is a bit like rotating your tires: You know it's a smart thing to do – but you just can't find the time to get the job done.

Fortunately, putting your estate in order isn't that difficult. When you're done, you'll feel a sense of accomplishment and relief. Those who survive you will appreciate your thoughtfulness in simplifying their work.

When you plan your estate, consider including a living trust. It can eliminate or greatly reduce the need for probate court proceedings when you're gone. Without a living trust, your family may face a flood of probate paperwork, excruciating delays and annoying expenses. With a living trust, the handling of your estate can proceed quickly and smoothly.

Here's how a living trust works:

Step 1 – Create your trust

Your lawyer will help you prepare a trust document called a declaration of trust or perhaps a trust agreement. You'll give the trust a name such as "The John Smith Living Trust." If you're married, you'll probably create a trust together with your spouse – "The John Smith and Jane Smith Living Trust."

In the trust document, you and your spouse will be called the grantors, meaning you're the people setting up the trust. You'll also be called the trustees because, as long as you're able to do so, you'll be running the trust.

You'll also name someone to be the successor trustee – the person who takes charge of the trust if you and your spouse have died or become incapacitated. Who will be the successor trustee? Anyone you choose. It can be an adult child, a friend, a business associate or a bank.

Step 2 – Put assets in your trust

After creating the trust, you transfer property into it. This can include your home, your bank accounts and stocks, and the business you own – especially if it's a corporation or LLC.

To put your home into the trust you sign a deed. John and Jane Smith, for example, would use a deed to transfer legal title to "John and Jane Smith as trustees of the John and Jane Smith Living Trust under agreement dated Nov. 12, 2012."

This sounds a little complicated, but it's routine stuff to a lawyer who sets up trusts. Your bank and stockbroker can easily do the paperwork for putting bank accounts and stocks into the trust.

You also can name the trust as the beneficiary of a life insurance policy, a securities account or a bank account. If you do, the proceeds will get transferred to your trust after you and your spouse have died. This is an alternative to transferring assets to your trust during your lifetime.

Something to keep in mind: Owning property jointly with your spouse is OK, but it's only a stopgap measure. If one of you dies, the other becomes the sole owner. When the second one dies, the joint property has to be probated. Putting property into a living trust avoids this.

Once you put property into the trust, nothing really changes from what you're doing now. As a trustee, you have complete control over the property. You can sell it or take it out of the trust, if you like, and you can revoke or amend the trust.

Step 3 – Using and distributing trust assets

After you and your spouse have died, the successor trustee takes over to do whatever you've instructed in the trust. You might, for example, instruct the successor trustee to use the trust property for the benefit of your children, holding the bulk of a child's share until he or she reaches the age you designate. This can be 22 years, 25 years, 30 years — whatever age you choose.

You can instruct the successor trustee to pay designated amounts to charities, friends or relatives. You can, in fact, do anything in a trust that you can do in a will. The trust will end once the successor trustee distributes all the property.

Other estate planning tools

The living trust is usually the centerpiece of an estate plan. Your lawyer will probably want you to consider three other documents as well:

Will. A living trust doesn't completely eliminate the need for a will. If you have minor children, for example, you can use a will to designate who you and your spouse want as the children's guardian if you die while the kids are young. You also can use a will to cover any property you neglect to put into your living trust while you're alive. Typically, the will simply adds this property to your living trust.

Power of attorney. You name an agent to handle your non-trust assets for you. This is convenient if you travel a lot or you want someone else – such as your spouse or an adult child – to take care of your financial affairs if you become ill.

Living will or healthcare power of attorney. This instrument helps assure that your wishes regarding healthcare are carried out if you're too ill to communicate with your doctor. Where permitted by state law, a healthcare power of attorney is usually better than a living will. In it, you can express your wishes about medical care, and also authorize a designated family member or close friend to speak for you in authorizing or declining treatment.