Answers to Frequently Asked Living Trust Questions
A Living Trust is a written agreement that should, if properly drafted and executed, be valid in any state in which a person resides.
The location of the person’s residence or the location of the assets used to fund the trust are not relevant to its validity. Even if the assets of the original Trust are disposed, the Trust remains valid and is not tied to any specific location.
If the heirs of a Trust believe that the Trustee is not fulfilling his or her duty as trustee, they can initiate a lawsuit in the appropriate court to compel or require that the trustee fulfill that fiduciary duty.
Standard Legal’s Living Trust legal forms software allows the donor to name the Trust whatever he or she cares to name it. (In the vast majority of cases, the name of the donor is the name of the trust, but there is no requirement that the donor\’s name be used.) Get complete details on Standard … Read more
Standard Legal does not require that any asset be listed directly within the Trust documents in its legal forms software package.
Generally, there is no taxable event when property is transferred to a self-funded (revocable) Living Trust.
But a person creating a Trust should not take this response to mean that a specific situation is not the exception to this rule — especially if some “creative funding” is implemented.
As long as deeds to real estate or property are listed in the name of a Trust, the property is owned by the Trust and will be administered per the terms of the Trust. To make this structure legal for each state will require filing each property’s deed in the appropriate county records office under … Read more
The Trust must be executed (i.e. signed and notarized) by the Donor (the person making the Trust) while he or she was living.
Upon the death of the Donor, the Trustees are required to administer the Trust by following the written language contained in the Trust document itself.
The answer to this question depends on which state and county the Donor (the person making the Trust) or the Maker (the person creating a Will) resides.
In the vast majority of states, a Living Trust and/or a Last Will and Testament do NOT need to be registered or filed while the Donor or Maker is alive.
Transferring vehicles to a Trust requires that the vehicle title be changed so that the Trust is the owner of the vehicle.
Likewise, the obligation to pay (i.e. the loan) should also be transferred to the Trust, but doing so would require a separate loan or note to be executed with the lender who financed the vehicle.