Revocable Trust
A revocable trust is similar to a beneficiary designation on a financial account, but allows for more complex planning (i.e., age(s) of distributions and percentage(s) of distributions for beneficiaries, and planning for different scenarios). Upon your passing, if an account has a primary beneficiary named on its beneficiary designation, the balance of the account will automatically transfer to that beneficiary. If an account does not have a living primary beneficiary, it will pass to the contingent beneficiary. Usually, your trust will be named as the contingent beneficiary, although it varies by account type, so the balance will be transferred to a trust account, which will have been opened by the successor trustee. The successor trustee will then manage the trust account and make distributions when the time comes.
If creating a joint revocable trust, the balance of joint accounts will transfer to the trust upon the survivor's death.
Information needed for drafting your revocable trust
What would you like the name of your trust to be?
If you own real property, the name of the trust will appear on the deed and therefore on public record when it is recorded.
Who would you like to serve as successor trustee(s)?
Clients typically have two to four levels of individuals serving individually or as successor co-trustees (i.e., parents, as co-trustees; sibling; friend; and bank). A financial institution can also be named as a successor trustee, just make sure they offer that service and if there are any limitations.
Please provide us with the successor trustees’ full legal names (you can abbreviate the middle name) and relation to you (i.e., sibling, cousin, mother, father, friends, sibling-in-law, etc.).
Who would you like the beneficiaries of the trust to be?
Please provide us with the full legal names of each beneficiary, the amount each beneficiary is to receive, and your relation to each beneficiary
If the beneficiaries named for the above question are gone, would you like to name contingent beneficiaries?
The contingent beneficiaries can be individuals or charities. If no contingent beneficiaries are named, the default statutory language will be included. The default language follows a typical family tree down to children, up to parents, over to siblings, down to siblings' children, and so on until a level with a living member is reached.
If you would like to name contingent beneficiaries, please provide us with the names of the beneficiaries, the amount each beneficiary is to receive, and the relation to each beneficiary
What age(s) would you like the beneficiaries to receive their shares of the trust, and in what percentages/amounts?
For example, 20% at 25, 30% at 30, and 50% at 35. Additional requirements may be added, such as completion of a tertiary degree
Do you want to include any additional clauses?
Additional clauses include pet guardian and specific gifts of cash or property