Creating and Funding

A Revocable Living Trust (Trust) is a legal document created by you with the help of your estate-planning attorney. Your Trust names beneficiaries both during your lifetime and upon your death. It can manage assets during your lifetime and during periods of illness as well as disburse assets to selected beneficiaries upon your death. And, a Trust can also be used to provide benefits to others after your death.

In creating a trust, you will need to select your trustees. The trustees are responsible for managing your Trust through its various stages. Initially you can name yourself as a trustee, but when you become ill or die, another trustee must be named to take over the role of managing the Trust assets and carrying out your wishes. Your attorney can help in the Trustee selection process. You can name individuals and/or Corporate Trustees such as a financial institution to be your back-up Trustee(s).

Please remember that a Revocable Living Trust can be changed and even revoked during your lifetime so you are not locked into your decisions – they can be changed by you at any time.

Next, you need to fund the Trust, which involves changing the titling of your assets from your sole and/or joint names to the name of your Trust. This is a vital step because your Trust document can only control assets that are titled in its name. Many times, people forget to properly fund their Trust and when they die, their Trust is only partially funded or even worse, there is no funding whatsoever.

Managing Your Trust During Your Lifetime