Steve Jobs left a substantial legacy after his death this Wednesday. He was pivotal in the development of the personal computer, iTunes changed the way that people purchased music, and his iPhone and iPad devices forever changed mobile communications and computing. As you might imagine, he also left behind a substantial estate. While none of us have the magnitude of assets that Jobs did, his estate planning strategy can still be instructive for those of us who will have more modest estates as well.

Reuters News reports that Jobs placed at least three properties into trusts at some point in 2009. By using these trusts Jobs may have been attempting to keep his personal financial life private and avoid having all of his assets made public in a will. It is not yet known whether he made similar trusts arrangements for his non-real estate property such as stocks.

Prior to creating the trusts Jobs and his wife co-owned their home in Palo Alto, as well two other properties in a nearby town. But in 2009, when Jobs was on medical leave from Apple, he and his wife transferred ownership of the three properties into two separate trusts.

There are numerous estate planning goals that can be achieved by creating a trust. In some circumstances they can reduce the overall tax burden on the decedent's assets. They also allow the trust property to avoid probate. Because Jobs closely guarded his privacy, avoiding probate may have been one of his top concerns. When his will is eventually filed it may simply indicate that all the property is left to the trustee, which would then be administered according to the instructions in the trust itself.

Source: Reuters News "Steve Jobs put real estate in trust in 2009: records," Dan Levine, Oct. 6, 2011