Funding Your Trust
Probably the most important item needed in Trust planning is for the Trust to be funded. It has always amazed me that people will spend thousands of dollars to set up their Trust, and then they will not fund the Trust, which means they have basically thrown their money away.
For an asset to be controlled by a Trust, the title or proof of ownership must be in the name of the Trustee of the Trust. This transferring of assets from your personal name into the Trust is called Funding the Trust.
The procedures for funding a Trust can be simple or they can be very complex. It all depends on the name the asset is currently in and the procedures of the bank, insurance company, stockbrokerage firm, etc.
Several Estate Planning law firms only transfer the deed for real estate and let their clients transfer the other assets. At Cutchin Law Firm we have decided it is best if we actually handle all the clients’ funding. In fact, because of the importance of funding a trust, I require that we handle the funding for any Trust I set up.
Angel Marshall is my Asset Transfer Coordinator and is responsible for the Funding Department. Her assistant is Deloris Gunnells. Both of these people are very efficient in their job and they are always happy to assist you in any way.
Funding procedure
The funding of a Trust takes, at the very least, several weeks and sometimes several months to complete. First, we are dependent on you to bring us the information we need to transfer assets into your Trust. Next, we have to schedule the asset transfer in with our existing schedules. Finally, we must wait until the institutions we send instructions to respond to our requests.
We do stay on top of funding by using the latest software we can find for the job. Even so, there is the human element at the institutions with which we deal that we have no control over.
To keep you abreast of your funding, we send you a follow-up report every third week. This keeps you informed of what is going on and how much progress is being made.