Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Control By Amendment

King Fear put many of his assets into his own living trust. But he still has full control over all of the assets owned by his living trust, because he can amend it at any time so long as he follows a few formalities.

The amendment must be in writing and, of course, be dated. It should be signed in a manner similar to the signing of the original trust, including witnessing of his signature. After all, Fear can change how much each person receives, whether a bank or a relative will serve as the next trustee and change any other provisions in his trust.

In fact, if he wants, he can “restate” his trust and change everything about it by replacing it with all new provisions.
Only he can amend his trust, though, because he is the only grantor of the trust. No one else can ever serve as grantor of the trust.

“Grantor” is the label that his living trust puts on the person who decided what the terms of the trust were going to be, in other words, the person who created the trust and put his property into it. Other common terms used for the grantor of a living trust are settlor, trustor, and maker.

So only King Fear can amend his trust. And he can amend anything about it. But on his death, it may as well be cast in stone, because no other person will ever be able to amend it.

Estate planning can help you make sure your money goes were you want it to go after your death, in whatever way you decide is fair. For help creating your own estate plan, please call my office at (815) 436-1996 for an appointment.

© 2014 Gruber Law Office, Ltd.


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