Cars and Revocable Trusts. What is one to do?

We get this question occasionally from clients, so I thought I’d tackle it this week.

To start at a high level, cars are considered personal property in Washington State. Just like jewelry, or your couch, or your clothes.

This means, even though they have a title, kind of like real estate, the formalities required with real estate are not required with vehicles.

Because those formalities are not required, we don’t promote retitling your vehicles into you Trust after creation.

And that’s not the only reason.

Most people don’t keep one vehicle their entire lives (unless it’s a collector, in which case we would suggest putting it into the Trust).

It’s kind of a pain to retitle every new car you get into your trust. So we don’t recommend it.

You’re probably thinking, “Okay, but what happens to the vehicles when I die?”

Great question. When that happens, your Personal Representative would go to the Department of Licensing and file what’s called an “Affidavit of Inheritance” transferring the title of the vehicles into the Trust.

Once in the Trust you can sell them, distribute them, etc.

Easy-peasy.

Hope this helps!

Have a great week!

Sincerely,

Christopher Small
Owner
CMS Law Firm LLC

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