Funding a trust is the process of transferring your assets into a trust's name, making the trust the legal owner of those assets. To do this, you physically change the titles of your assets from your individual name to the name of your trust.

Some assets are best handled by funding them into the trust, while other assets are best handled through beneficiary designations. We recommend the following:

Assets to be Handled by Funding (Transferring) Into the Trust

1. Real Estate
   1. Primary Residence: : If you own a home, we recommend changing the title to put the home in your trust’s name. You would do this by filing the contribution deed and voluntary homestead designation forms that you executed at your estate plan execution with the County Clerk’s Office for the county in which your property is located.
   2. Rental Properties: If you have rental properties, we recommend that you transfer these properties into an LLC, as this can provide liability protection. Our firm can assist you with forming the entity, then transferring the rental properties into the entity. Please let us know if this is something you are interested in pursuing.
2. Personal Property: By executing an Assignment of Personal Property document, you are thereby funding your trust with all the contents inside of your home, such as personal personal effects, furniture, clothing, jewelry, collectibles, etc. This Assignment ensures that these items avoid probate. Please note that vehicles are handled differently (see below).
3. Business Interests: If you are a member of a limited liability or corporation, we recommend that transfer your interest in the entity into your revocable living trust. This is typically accomplished through an Assignment of Entity Interest document. Our firm can assist you with preparing this document, however please note that this falls outside of your legal plan coverage.

Assets to be Handled Through Beneficiary Designations

1. Financial Accounts: For all financial accounts, including bank accounts, retirement accounts, life insurance policies, etc:
   1. Generally, if your children are younger than 18 AND you want your trust to override any other distribution rules then we recommend:
      1. For joint controlled accounts (e.g. checking accounts) - put your trust as the primary beneficiary.
      2. For sole controlled accounts (e.g. 401ks) - put your spouse as the primary beneficiary and the trust as the secondary beneficiary.
   2. Generally, if your children are older than 18, we recommend
      1. For joint controlled accounts (e.g. checking accounts) - put your children as the primary beneficiaries.
      2. For sole controlled accounts (e.g. 401ks) - put your spouse as the primary beneficiary and your children as the other beneficiaries.
2. Vehicles: For your cars, we recommend adding a beneficiary other than the trust to the car title. The reason being, if you get in a wreck and they see a car within a trust, they can think “big money” and sue. Here is the beneficiary form for the car title: https://texaslawhelp.org/sites/default/files/motorvehicle_forms_instructions-final_0.pdf