A trust is an excellent estate planning tool when you’ve selected the right vehicle and funded the trust. In order to fund your California trust, assets you want managed by it must be retitled into the trust.

If you establish a trust with the help of a knowledgeable estate planning attorney as part of your overall estate plan, make sure to transfer those assets into the trust in the future. Typically, this is a simple process that means listing the assets as part of the trust. However, if there are deeds or other titling procedures in place, this is much more complicated. This refers to those situations in which you’re transferring real estate property into a trust.

A new deed must be obtained and filed, insurance companies must be notified, and, in some situations, a lender may need to provide permission regarding the real estate property. If you do not appropriately retitle and transfer a piece of property into a trust, this means that the estate item will still go through probate after the creator’s death.

One of the primary reasons for establishing a trust in the first place is to avoid the expense and time-consuming nature of probate. Working with a knowledgeable estate planning attorney is one of the best ways to identify which type of trust you should use for estate planning purposes, and to verify that the process is carried through completely from the time you decide to establish a trust to the retitling of that item into the trust. Make sure you mark time on your calendar every year to review your existing estate plan and to discuss options for making any revisions.

When you work with our Pasadena estate planning law office, we’ll answer your key questions around how best to plan for the future of your assets based on your personal goals.

 

 

 

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