Posted by Randy McKee on July 17, 2001 at 15:56:37:
Hi Dan,
If you’re going to make a Revocable Trust, you can do the trust first and then fund it later with the property by simply doing a quit-claim deed from you to your trust. This strategy won’t get you much help for asset protection, etc., but it will help you avoid probate and get your name off the deed.
If you’re going to make an Irrevocable Trust, you are better-off doing the trust first and then taking deed to house into the trust at closing. You can either have your Trustee there, or have a power of attorney from the Trustee to an agent who is authorized to close the deal on behalf of the trust. This method will provide you less flexibility but maximum asset protection.
The big issue here is what you’re hoping to accomplish by using a trust. If you let me know why you’re interested in this strategy and what you hope to accomplish, I can help you a lot more.
Posted by Dan Alfaro on July 16, 2001 at 21:25:29:
Hi folks, hope someone can shed some light on the specifics of how to do this:
If, when we close on a house (this would be our residence), we want to immediately take title in the name of a land trust, do we…
Fill out the trust agreement in advance, having our trustee sign, have it notarized, etc, BEFORE we close on the house? In this case we would have to put the legal description of the house in the agreement beforehand, and have it all signed, notarized and safely in my filing cabinet at home BEFORE we turn up at the closing table. RIGHT?
OR, do we…
Take our trustee with us to the closing table and sign all the documents then and there? This seems a bit unwieldy but I just wondered whether there was any problem in scenario #1 above given that we’re completing a trust agreement concerning a property that the grantor of the trust (me) doesn’t yet have control over. Also, I remember hearing in one of Ron LeGrand’s courses that the trust agreement should be dated the same date as the deed.
Dan,
Why are you trying to place the home into a trust in the first place?
Is it for asset protection?
As was said below, the reason you want to do this may help us in telling you better how to accomplish that goal.
Post more and I’m sure you’ll get better ideas,
Jim FL