Attorney Thomas B. Burton answers a reader question about whether they can open a checking account as the successor Trustee while the primary trustee is still alive.
Transcript of Video: Can I Open Checking Account as Successor Trustee While Primary is Still Alive?
Today's question comes from Waukesha
Wisconsin and the reader has the
following can I open a checking account
in the name of a trust if I am the only
successor trustee while the primary is
alive
so by primary I think they mean the
grantor the creator of the trust who's
probably still serving as trustee we
have a trust in the name of my father he
is the primary trustee and I am a
successor trustee he is gravely ill can
I open a bank account to protect his
assets from probate before he passes as
a successor trustee do I have the power
to do that so that's the question in full
and the answer to this again comes down
to you need to examine the trust
document to see what powers it grants
you as successor trustee if you are the
successor trustee but not yet acting my
initial reaction is that you likely lack
the power to open this account however
many trusts such as the ones I draft
include provisions about what happens
when the initial trustee your father is
ill or incapacitated now for trusts I
draft there's often a provision stating
that if two physicians say they're
incapacitated unable to act then the
successor steps in so if your trust has
a provision like that it's likely you
could trigger that provision and begin
acting as successor trustee in general
if you are the trustee you likely have
the power to open an account and move
assets around any assets already owned
by the trust now one thing to be aware
of is sometimes people form a trust but
they don't transfer the assets like the
title to real estate well then you need
to look and see if in your father's
estate plan he executed a durable
financial power of attorney and if he
named you as agent the ones I draft
often say that my agent may take assets
and pour them into my trust plan so for
example let's say there's a piece of
real estate your father never
retitled it's possible you could act as
his agent to retitle that piece of real
estate into the name of this trust if
you get it into the name of the trust
then it would avoid probate upon his
death and it sounds like your goal here
is to avoid probate on these assets so
you want to make sure that as many
assets as he owns are all retitled or
assigned into the name of the trust I
recommend working with an experienced
estate playing and probate attorney to
accomplish this because it sounds like
you're on a very short timeline great
question and thank you for asking.
© 2019 Law Office of Thomas B. Burton. All Rights Reserved.
Transcript and captions provided for ease of access for the hearing impaired.
For questions about this topic, or to suggest a topic for a future blog post, please contact my office.
Comments