Funding Your Revocable Trust

After you signed your Estate Plan documents, including a Revocable Trust, the next step in the Estate Planning process is to fund your Trust. Your estate planning attorney should have advised you to do this. It’s an important part of the process! But, you may be wondering…what does it mean to “Fund Your Trust”?

You fund your Trust when you transfer assets to the Trust and/or change the titling of an asset to the trust. When an asset is transferred or retitled to the Trust, the Trust becomes the owner.

To fund your Trust with a bank or brokerage investment account, you must change the title of the account to the Trust. Most banks and brokerages house will ask you to open a new account in the name of the Trust, and then transfer assets (cash and securities) to the new Trust account.

To fund your Trust with real estate in Massachusetts, you must deed the real estate to the Trust and record the deed at the Registry of Deeds. A real estate or estate planning attorney can prepare and record the deed for you.

Your estate planning attorney may also advise you to fund your Trust with other assets – stock, interests in a partnership or limited liability company, or tangible property, for instance.

You can also change the beneficiaries of life insurance policies and accounts with TOD (transfer on death) designations so that those assets will fund your Trust after your death.

There are many good reasons to fund your Trust during your lifetime. If you do, those assets can be managed by a Trustee for your benefit during a period of incapacity. In addition, the assets in the Trust avoid probate on your death and the process of estate administration is simpler and quicker.