Cristyn: When it comes to funding a trust, we’re going to be looking at really three different types of assets and how they get to the trust. Real property, typically, we’re transferring it into the trust if you already own it when the trust was created. If you’re purchasing future properties, most of the time you can buy the new property directly into the trust, even if it’s outside of your home state or the state the trust was created in. Your cash assets, life insurance, retirement, bank accounts, all of those types of assets can have the trust as the beneficiary.

When it comes to businesses, business assets can almost always be inherited by the trust. It just takes different shape or form based on the type of entity. Now, when it comes to your trust and your plan, you do need to talk to the estate planning attorney who helped you put it together to figure out how the assets need to look for your personal plan. Make sure you don’t leave any assets left out because that could trigger a probate. If you make sure you have all your eyes dotted and your teeth crossed, we are going to skip probate and your family will have a very easy trust administration when you ultimately pass.