NOTE: This is part 2 of a two-part article on trusts. Read part 1.
“What does my trust say?” If you’re like most people, you were surprised by the stack of documents at your estate planning signing meeting. The estate planning process, including the revocable living trust, has a lot of information to take in during a few meetings.
In part one of “What does my trust say?” we discussed the trust creation, family acknowledgement, trust funding, and the appointment of trustees. Below, we continue.
Disability planning
Your trust will include disability planning. This means that there are instructions as to when will be deemed “disabled” authorizing your disability trustees to take over management of your financial affairs and day to day business on your behalf. This is the most important lifetime benefit of your trust.
Distribution provisions
After you die, your financial assets are distributed pursuant to the distribution provisions in your trust. There are likely sub-trusts for your surviving spouse/partner. And upon your spouse’s/partner’s death, sub-trusts for your children (or other beneficiaries.)
Trust funding
Part of the estate planning process is trust funding. Funding refers to the process through which the title of your assets is transferred from your name into the name of your trust. For example, the bank account was in the name of “James L Smith.” It is then re-titled into “The James L. Smith Revocable Trust, dated June 3, 2010.”
Trustee powers
Many trusts will have pages and pages of what the trustees powers are. I try to keep my documents more comprehensible and simply refer to the powers available to a trustee under the California Probate Code. These are extensive and should cover almost every conceivable situation.
If you have questions about what’s in your revocable living trust, please feel free to call our estate planning law office at (858) 792-5988. We’d be happy to assist you.