Funding the Trust

• Author: Margaret A. Munro, Kathryn A. Murphy
• Profession: Has more than 30 years' experience in trusts, estates, family tax, and small businesses/Attorney with more than 20 years' experience administering estates and trusts and preparing estate and gift tax returns
• Pages: 173-185

CHAPTER 11 Funding the Trust 173

Chapter11

Funding the Trust

The trust instrument has nally been signed. You’ve agreed to serve as

trustee and have also had a chance to look over the provisions of the trust,

so you probably have a good idea what you may and may not do as trustee.

Now you have to identify the property that belongs in this trust and gure out

howyou’re going to move it from point A (the grantor’s possession) to point B

(the trust).

This chapter explains how to transfer all sorts of property and what special

considerations you need to make allowances for. We show you how to make sure

that the transfer process is smooth and alert you to possible gift tax consequences

for transfers made during the grantor’s lifetime.

Putting Assets in Trust during Life

If you’re the trustee of a trust whose grantor is still living, or if you’re both trustee

and grantor of a trust that’s ready to start operations, you’re probably ready

to start moving assets (items of value owned by any entity) into the trust. For

example, the grantor may have designed the trust to avoid probating certain

assets and/or to make everything accessible for the grantor’s benet if he or she

becomes incapacitated. (To verify the trust’s purpose, refer to Chapter3.)

IN THIS CHAPTER

»

Moving assets into the trust while the

grantor is alive

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Reregistering existing assets

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Funding a trust after the grantor’s

death