Fund Your Trust
Whether you have your trust prepared by an attorney, a Legal Document Assistant (LDA) or you complete it yourself, it is important to fund your trust. You should contact an expert to get appropriate advice for each asset that you own. This might include, but is not limited to the following: an Estate Planning Attorney, Financial Advisor, Certified Public Accountant, Investment Fund Manager, etc….
Assets to consider/verify:
Is the deed to your home now in the name of your trust?
Are all of your bank checking and savings accounts put in your trust or do you have a Pay on Death designation, beneficiary listed or another signer on the account?
Investment accounts? Did you open up any new accounts since you created your trust?
Are the deeds to any vacations homes or investment properties in the name of your trust?
What about Life Insurance policies? Have you looked at those recently and updated your beneficiary information?
The bottom line is that you need to make certain that you have all of your assets accounted for in one way or another. The reason you created your trust is so that your surviviors do not have to go through probate when you die. Are you giving an account to someone directly and you have them listed as a beneficiary or is the account in the name of your trust or the trust is listed as a beneficiary?
We often complete our trust and then put it away and forget about it. The Olympics have just ended, summer is nearly over and now it is time to get your business done before the end of the year which is fat approaching. Take the time to review your estate planning documents now.
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