Putting Your Bank Account Into Your Trust

16 Jan 2023 · 1 min

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In this instructional segment, the speaker explains how to transfer an existing personal bank account into a revocable trust after the trust has been created. The process begins with contacting the bank, as each institution has its own requirements. Typically, the bank will request a letter of instruction from the account holder asking to open a trust account, a copy of the trust’s certificate of trust (which includes the trust’s name, trustees, and creation date), and possibly the first and last pages or the full trust document. After submitting these documents and completing the bank’s forms, the bank changes the account title from the individual’s name to the trust’s name, thereby funding the trust and making it effective for estate‑planning purposes.

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How do you put your bank account into your trust? So you've created a revocable trust and now you want to put your money and your property into it. Until you do that, the trust is no good to you at all. First off, contact the bank. Every bank has different requirements for putting a bank account into a trust. Some banks it's an easy process, at others it's more difficult. Bank may ask for a letter of instruction, which is just what it sounds like, a letter from you asking the bank to open a trust account on your behalf. Deliver that to the bank and the bank will give you all the other forms that you need to fill out. The bank will also want a copy of your certificate of trust. This was probably one of the documents that you signed when you signed your trust. This document is just essentially evidence of your trust with the name, the name of the trustees, when the trust was created, and the bank may also want a copy of the first page and the last page of your trust, or they may ask for an entire copy of the trust itself. Once everything's been turned into the bank and completed, the title of your bank account will then be the title of the trust instead of your individual name. And once that happens, your bank account is in the trust.