When my estate planning clients are done creating their revocable living trust I usually do two things:

1. I move all of their real estate into the trust; and

2. I counsel them to update all of their beneficiary and transfer on death designees to be the trust.

This has the effect of putting all of the real estate in the trust and leaving the financial accounts out of the trust until they die.

The primary reason I do this is that it’s FAR easier to update a beneficiary designee than add an account holder. It’s simply a matter of convenience.

Sometimes, however, this can result in the client holding a check in the name of the trust with no means of depositing it. There is no bank account in the name of the trust so there’s no way to deposit it.

For this, there are two workarounds.

First, you could simply cash the check and then deposit it into your regular account. You’ll likely need your Certification of Trust when you do this.

Second, you can add your trust to one of your personal bank accounts as a joint account holder and put any future deposits into that account. As a joint account holder you’ll still be able to sign individually (as opposed to as the trustee) which makes things way easier.

Okay, that’s it. Easy revocable trust banking solution.

Cheers,

Christopher Small
Estate Planning Attorney

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