Funding a Living Trust

Our Arizona estate planning attorneys in Mesa would like you to know how important it is to have a properly funded trust.

One of the biggest reasons why a trust based estate plan fails, even a properly drafted one, is because it is not funded properly. Funding is the process of re-titling all of your assets into your revocable living trust, including but not limited to: Bank accounts, investments accounts, deeding real property into the trust, assigning membership interest of an LLC into the trust, transferring stock ownership, bonds, promissory notes, timeshares, vehicles, tangible personal property, insurance beneficiary designations, etc.

The funding of your trust should be constantly monitored and looked at periodically to make sure that everything is titled how it should be. At Rowley Chapman & Barney, Ltd., our trust funding attorneys, provides our clients a detailed Asset Detail Report, which categorizes all of a client’s assets and enables a client to track whether a particular asset has been funded or not. Additionally, we create a funding portfolio whereby all assets are organized with separate tabs and “proof” of an assets funding into the trust is placed in the portfolio by the client.

If properly followed, this process should give a family peace of mind that their wishes, as outlined in their revocable living trust will actually work properly and will not fail due to improper funding.

Please contact estate planning attorney, Kenneth C. Barney by email to [email protected] or at 480-833-1113 for more information about a funding your existing trust or help with organizing and creating a funding portfolio