Funding Your Revocable Living Trust

We believe that success for your estate plan includes proper funding (or re-titling) of your assets in to your newly created Revocable Living Trust. By funding your trust it helps ensure that your assets will be governed by the instructions established by you and ultimately helps you meet certain objectives such as avoiding probate and minimizing estate taxes.

In an effort to be transparent and clear on our fees, we provide three options for your funding:

Option One: Do nothing at this time. You may decline to fund your trusts at this time. This is not recommended by us. Your plan has been set up so that the ‘drip-pan’ (also known as your Pour Over Will) would ultimately fund your assets into your trust upon your death. With this option you leave more work for your survivors that will cost more because of the lengthy probate process.
In addition, should you have a period of mental disability, without funding, your
assets would not be in your trust and therefore not covered by those instructions.

Option Two: Do it yourself. You can choose to fund your trust yourself. If you choose this option, we will provide you a detailed memo that provides instructions for how to fund each asset class. We remain available to assist you with any questions or forms at our normal hourly rates. You will at least need to have an attorney prepare and file a new deed for your real property that is to be funded into your trust. We can assist you with that for a flat fee of $250 for real estate in MA; for property in other states, we will need to quote a fee that can range between $225 and $375. This will include the trustee certificate which is required to be filed as well. This option may reduce your costs, but places a higher administrative burden on you. In our experience, clients who choose this option, with the best of intentions, often do not complete the process and wind up with the same downsides (probate; higher costs) when not completed.

Option Three: We do it for you. This is our recommended option. Per our engagement letter, we will prepare all of the documents and forms needed to fund your trust for a fixed fee plus the out-of-state deed costs. We will coordinate receiving confirmations on accounts and work with the various institutions on your behalf. You will still need to sign documents and perform some tasks, such as dealing with banks for your cash accounts, as we are not permitted to make changes directly with the banks for those accounts. In addition, we will need a copy of certain statements, policies, etc. A complete list of what is needed will be provided by our Client Services Coordinator. This option helps control and reduces costs upon death. This option also includes one year in our Maintenance Program that allows you to update your plan and make changes to the documents.

If you have questions or we can be of assistance with your trust funding, please call (617) 716-0300 or info@squillace-law.com.