Estate Planning - Funding Your Trust With Ease

When you need to put assets into your Revocable Trust, there are several ways of accomplishing this depending on the type of asset. Let’s break it down so you can easily see how to go about making these transfers.
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• For real property such as your residence, rental properties, and mineral interests, you will need to have a deed prepared to you, as Trustee of your Revocable Trust, including the date of your Revocable Trust. The type of deed that you use will depend on how the real property is currently owned. The fully executed deed must be recorded with the Register of Deeds in the county where the real property is located. You will receive the original recorded document back for your records once it has been properly recorded. 
• For assets such as bank accounts, non-retirement investments, vehicles, and other titled assets, you will want to change the ownership of the asset to you as Trustee of your Revocable Trust.
• Qualified retirement assets such as 401Ks, 403bs, IRAs, some annuities, etc., are treated differently than other titled assets. Due to the tax-deferred nature of these assets, it is not a good idea to name the Trust as the owner. Likewise, you may not want to name the Trust as the primary beneficiary if your spouse is still living and you want your spouse to inherit your qualified account upon your death. You may, however, want to instruct your financial advisor to add your Trust as the contingent beneficiary of your retirement asset. Before deciding the best way to set up your beneficiaries on your qualified account, it would be wise to visit with your estate planning attorney. Always request written confirmation that this change has been completed for your records. In general, it should take no longer than 1-2 months to receive confirmation, so if you have not received the written confirmation of this change by that time, please follow up. 
• Don’t overlook assets such as Treasury Savings Bonds and capital credit accounts with cooperative associations (utilities, grain, etc.). Savings Bonds must be submitted to the Treasury Department to be retitled. You can provide written instruction to your cooperative associations to retitle your capital credit accounts to the Trustee of your Revocable Trust.

 
You can do much of the funding work for your Trust on your own. If, however, you do not have the time, or the desire to do such, contact your estate planning attorney who can assist you with this process.
 
For more information on funding your Revocable Trust, contact Davis & McCann, P. A., Dodge City, KS. We are members of Wealth Counsel, a national consortium of Estate Planning Attorneys and Elder Law. We focus our practice on providing clients with the best legal advice on estate planning, Medicaid and Long-term Care Planning, Family Business/Small Business Succession Planning, Probate, Trust Administration, Real Estate Transactions, 1031 Exchanges, and related matters.

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