How Do I Change My Trust?

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A great advantage to having a Revocable Living Trust is that you can make changes to it at any time during your life, as long as you are mentally competent. But how do you go about doing so? The method you use for making changes to your trust depends on the type of change you wish to make.

Making A Minor Change

If you want to make a small change to your trust, such as changing who will serve as your Disability Trustee or updating the name of a beneficiary who has gotten married or divorced, then youll need to use a document known as a Trust Amendment. A Trust Amendment is used to change one provision or part of your trust, while keeping the remaining provisions exactly as they were in the original Trust Agreement.

Making A Major Change.

On the other hand, if you want to make several changes, or if you want to make a major change, like cutting a beneficiary completely out of your trust, youll need to use a document known as a Trust Restatement. A Trust Restatement completely replaces each and every term and provision of your original Trust Agreement. The only things that arent changed by the Trust Restatement are 1) the name of your trust and 2) the original effective date of your trust. So, although the terms of your trust are replaced and renewed by the Trust Restatement, all the property that has been funded into your trust, remains funded into your trust.

Deciding whether to use a Trust Amendment or a Trust Restatement is best made with the guidance of your estate planning attorney. The one thing you dont want to do when making changes to your Trust Agreement is to handwrite the changes you want on the original document, and think that your handwritten notes will be effective. This is because any changes to your trust have to be signed and witnessed with the same legal formality as the original trust document.

About the Author:
James A. Miller is a leading provider of expert estate planning guidance in Worcester, MA. For more information on trust and other estate planning services, visit our website.



Article Originally Published On: http://www.articlesnatch.com


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