Funding a Trust
I am always surprised by how many clients I meet for the first time who have a living trust and none of their assets are owned by the trust.
Creating and executing a trust agreement can provide you with an orderly disposition of your estate but your assets will not avoid probate unless and until the Trust obtains legal title to your property. This procedure is called “funding” the Trust.
Documents of title must be executed to fund the Trust. Title to assets you acquire in the future should be put in the Trust’s name. If you take title to property in your own name at any time without disclosing the Trust, your Trust will have no effect on those assets and they may have to go through probate.
When my office creates a trust for a client, we retitle your assets. This is included in our packet of documents and provided at no additional expense.
I also see where an attempt was made to change the title but it was not done correctly. Luckily the client is still available and we make the correction.
