When asked to fund assets into a Revocable Living Trust, often times financial institutions will request a copy of the trust agreement for their files. Many Trustmakers, however, do not like the fact that these institutions will have an entire copy of their trust agreement on record.
In order to keep certain provisions of a Revocable Living Trust private, including who gets what after the Trustmaker dies, many attorneys will prepare a short Affidavit of Trust or Memorandum of Trust for their clients. This document will contain the following information that, in most cases, is all of the information a financial institution will need to know:
- Who created the trust and when;
- The name to be used for the trust;
- The fact that the trust is revocable and can be changed at any time;
- Who is named to serve as the initial Trustee or Trustees;
- Who is named to serve as the successor Trustee or Trustees;
- What powers the Trustee may exercise over the trust assets, and
- Who signed the trust agreement.
The Affidavit or Memorandum may also be recorded in place of the entire trust agreement in the public records of states that require trust documents to be recorded along with deeds transferring property into trusts.
