f you lose your Trust and die, not only will your Successor Trustees be missing valuable information about how you wanted your estate distributed, but they may be faced with moving assets that are titled in the name of the Trust into your Probate estate.
If a Trust is lost, and the decedent has assets titled in the name of the Trust, the court will require that the heirs/Successor Trustees spend a significant amount of time and money searching for the Trust and documenting the search process. This process involves Probate court and all of the expenses and fees associated with Probate—exactly what you hoped to avoid by creating a Living Trust in the first place!
Once any Trust assets are moved into the Probate estate, the full Probate case begins to distribute the assets. All of this translates to more time and more money. This scenario is extremely labor-intensive and expensive. We encourage our clients to keep their Trusts in a secure location and to share that location with at least one other family member.