Trust Amendment

Monday, September 28th, 2009

All good estate plans are designed to accommodate and anticipate changes.  The owner reserves the right to amend or revoke the trust in part or in whole.  And the most common amendment done by the owner is changing the trust asset distribution.  It’s so common for people to delete or add beneficiaries or even to adjust the amount or percentage that the beneficiary will receive.  Also, another common change is to change the order or names of successor trustees.

Because it’s so easy to amend any trust, some people are doing it on a regular basis.  There are some trusts with seven or more amendments.  But sometimes, it’s easier to just replace the whole trust instead of amending it several times. 

However, some people don’t like the thought of doing the trust all over again because it’s a bit daunting.  In a new trust, all assets titled in the first trust’s name needs to be transferred to the new one.  And it could be too much work to re-title assets.

So instead of creating a new trust, you can just restate it.  The great thing about this is: you don’t need to re-title the assets of your old trust.  A trust restatement is already funded, and could simple replace the original trust.

Tags: asset, assets, beneficiaries, estate plans, Family Trust, owner, trust, trust amendent, trust restatement
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