Andrew Fesler, a leading Carlsbad estate planning lawyer, reviews why you need to “fund a trust”- what does that mean and why is it necessary.
Transcript:
” Because a trust is an entity unto itself that the client is creating, the trust needs to actually own all of the assets that the client wants it to transfer to their beneficiaries. Otherwise, we haven’t really accomplished anything. We can go through 90% of the trust planning and execution process and get all the way to signing the documents and, if we get a signed, completed document but we haven’t funded it, we’ve actually accomplished almost nothing. We have essentially done what would’ve been done if somebody had just created a will.
We’re going to go to probate. We’re going to have to spend a long time getting those assets through the probate process and then finally transferred into the trust. If we don’t execute a deed and have the deed recorded to transfer the client’s real estate into the trust, those assets aren’t going to pass through the trust, and they’re going to have to go through probate. If the client doesn’t go to their bank or banks or brokerage institutions and get their accounts transferred in the name of their trust, then they’re not going to have those accounts pass through the trust either.
This comes up a lot I see when clients go to, say, online drafting services and have a trust drafted and sign it. The trust may even be a document that functions, but the client then doesn’t understand how important it is to do the last step and get the document funded. The trust actually winds up accomplishing almost nothing, so I think that’s also a really important reason that going to an attorney to have the trust process put into place is really important compared to having a client, say, go online and do it on their own.”
Contact the Law Office of Andrew Fesler
Estate planning, as a field of law, encompasses a wide range of legal tools and strategies aimed at managing an individual’s assets during their lifetime and ensuring their orderly distribution upon death. A trust is one of the best ways to manage your assets during your lifetime, particularly a revocable trust. To fund a trust is an important and necessary aspect to having a trust and with the right guidance by an experienced trust lawyer like Andrew Fesler, you can do it.
Making a plan for after you are gone to protect your loved ones is one of the more important reasons to work with Attorney Andrew Fesler. Contact our office and let’s work together to make sure you have a good plan in place. During our consultation, you will begin to see the advantages of having a comprehensive estate plan, and upon completion will have a peace of mind you couldn’t have imagined.
Call (760) 444-0943 or leave a message on our online form. We make every effort to reply within a day.
