How do you fund a living trust?

Step 1 — Inventory what you own

Before anything is transferred, list every asset and how it is currently titled: real estate, bank accounts, brokerage accounts, retirement accounts, life insurance, business interests, vehicles, and valuables. Note the exact title on each one.

This inventory is also what prevents the other common disaster — assets nobody can find after you are gone.

Step 2 — Retitle real estate

Each property needs a new deed transferring it from your name to the trust, prepared correctly for that state and recorded with the county recorder.

This is the highest-stakes item on the list. Real estate is usually what forces a family into probate, and out-of-state property left untransferred triggers a second probate in that state. Do not attempt this with a downloaded form: an improperly drafted or unrecorded deed fails silently and nobody discovers it until it matters.

Step 3 — Retitle accounts and assets

• Bank and credit union accounts — retitle in the name of the trust.
• Non-retirement brokerage and investment accounts — retitle in the name of the trust.
• Business interests — assign LLC membership interests or shares to the trust, subject to any operating agreement or buy-sell restrictions.
• Notes receivable and other contract rights — assign to the trust.
• Valuable personal property, collections, and untitled items — transfer with an assignment of personal property.

Step 4 — Handle beneficiary designations deliberately

Some assets should not be retitled into the trust, but their beneficiary designations still need to be coordinated with it.

• Retirement accounts (401(k), IRA, 403(b)) — leave them titled in your name. Changing ownership can be treated as a full distribution and taxed. Name individuals as primary beneficiaries, with the trust as contingent, unless a specific circumstance calls for a different approach.
• Life insurance — the trust is often named as beneficiary so the proceeds are governed by your plan rather than paid outright.
• Health savings accounts — keep in your name, with beneficiaries named.
• Vehicles — treatment varies by state; many plans leave them out and use a small-estate procedure instead.

Step 5 — Keep funding it

Funding is not a one-time event. Every account you open, property you buy, and business you form after signing needs to be titled in the trust from the start, or it drifts back outside the plan.

This is why we review plans annually and why we do not consider an engagement finished at the signing ceremony. A signed binder on a shelf with an empty trust inside it is the outcome we exist to prevent.