What it is: a legal document that allows you to place your assets into a trust during your lifetime while maintaining control over them. Because the trust is revocable, you can change, amend, or revoke it at any time — as long as you are mentally competent.
Why “living” and why “revocable”: created while you are alive, changeable while alive. During your life you are typically the trustee, so nothing actually changes for you — assets stay under your control. After death (or incapacity), the successor trustee carries out your plan — often avoiding probate.
Biggest practical benefit: assets in the trust pass to your beneficiaries without probate — no court, no public record, usually faster. For Illinois residents with out-of-state property, an RLT also avoids ancillary probate in that other state.
Watch out for: “avoiding probate” only happens for assets actually in the trust. Retirement accounts, vehicles, and recently acquired property often get missed. A pour-over will catches leftovers, but funding discipline is what makes the trust work.