If you instruct your attorney to prepare wills and trusts for you, you may assume that you have completed your probate avoidance plan when you sign the documents. In fact, however, your job is then only part way done. You must still focus on considering what property ownership rearrangements might be necessary to complete the project. A failure to follow through on this second step and to complete the necessary funding of the trusts may negate many or all of your planning objectives. It might be likened to buying a car but forgetting to put any gas in it.
Funding can achieve three important purposes.
Second, funding avoids probate administration and all of its costs, delays and publicity. Finally, funding will assist your family members and others easily to identify, assemble and administer your assets upon your death. The following will elaborate on these benefits and provide some guidance on how to fund your trust to achieve them. The Funded Revocable Trust Can Help Accomplish Estate Tax Savings on the First Spouse's Death . The tax planning benefits incorporated into your and your spouse's revocable trust will not work unless upon the first spouse's death property actually passes into the trust, either during lifetime or upon death through that spouse's will.