What do you put in your Trust?

24 Apr 2023 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:53

In this concise instructional video, Jerry Taylor explains the practical steps for populating a revocable trust with assets. He advises that virtually all major assets should be included, starting with the family home, which requires a specific transfer process. For bank accounts, he suggests keeping checking accounts in the individual's name while naming the trust as the primary beneficiary, and converting savings accounts into trust accounts. He warns against retitling retirement accounts (401(k)s, IRAs) to the trust’s name because doing so triggers a taxable distribution; instead, the trust should be named as a beneficiary. He also recommends involving a financial advisor in these decisions. For titled personal property such as cars, boats, or golf carts, he advises against changing titles and instead using an assignment of personal property to transfer ownership to the trust. The video concludes with a call to action to sign up for his “Max Your Money” program.

Chapters

If you have a revocable trust, what do you put in it? Just about everything. First off, there's your home. I've got a video talking about how you actually put your home in your trust. Checking and savings accounts. I usually recommend that people leave their checking accounts in their own names, but you make your trust the primary beneficiary of that checking account. If you have a savings account, I usually recommend that you change that to a trust account. Next, retirement accounts. Do not change the name on your 401 or your IRA to the name of the trust. If you do that, you have in essence distributed all the money in those accounts to the trust, which creates a taxable event. You do not want that to happen. So again, you name the trust as a beneficiary of those accounts. You have a financial advisor, I would include them in these talks. What about your personal property that has a title? Cars or boats or golf carts. I do not recommend going out and changing the title on those. What I do is to prepare an assignment of personal property. Now go to my profile page and sign up for Max Your Money.