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Funding Your Florida Trust

By David M. Goldman

Creating a Florida Revocable Trust is a job that most Florida Estate Planning Lawyers are capable of but the process of avoiding Florida Probate does not end there. Once the Florida Revocable Trust has been created it must then be funded with the client?s assets. Without proper funding all of the assets that should have been in the trust will pass through Florida Probate costing heirs extra money in taxes and fees.

In order to fund your Florida Revocable Trust properly, you need to transfer ownership of your assets into the name of the trust. Personal property can be transferred using a document called a General Assignment or Assignment of Personal Effects. Real property is a little more complex because it requires executing a new deed transferring the property from your name as an individual to the name of the trust. Institutions with which you have bank and brokerage accounts usually require a showing that your trust exists and that it is your wish to have these accounts transferred. A Certificate of Trust is a document that provides proof of the existence of your trust and is usually given to the client in the living trust package he receives from his Florida Estate Planning Attorney.

Forgetting or neglecting to fund your trust is something you wouldn?t want to do after going to all the trouble to create a trust in the first place. Even if you initially funded the trust with assets there are many cases where people have acquired a significant amount of assets later and never transferred them to the trust. If you would like assistance in creating a revocable living trust or an assessment of your existing trust contact a Florida Revocable Trust Lawyer or Jacksonville Estate Planning Lawyer today!

Full post as published by Florida Estate Planning Lawyer Blog on June 28, 2010 (boomark / email).