Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Arizona

Changing revocable trust without attorney?

My family and I have a revocable trust in which we would like to change part. Can we just retype those two pages and sign them or what?


Asked on 8/28/99, 2:38 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Re: Changing revocable trust without attorney?

That COULD work but it might not; someone might try to establish later that the two pages were not part of the original document, that there must have been a forgery attempt or some sort of switcheroo, etc. Have a lawyer involved, please.

Sometimes a trust modficiation needs whatever were the same execution formalities as the initial trust actually had, e.g., one witness or a notarization, even if the law wouldn't have required such for a trust.

There are also a number of ways to mess it up; language within a trust should be as well-crafted as language within a will, not susceptible to alternative interpretations (not at all ambiguous) and making use properly and heavily of the terms of art that have been developed in statutes and (centuries of!) case law, because once you die or become incapacitated, the trust is no longer revocable or modifiable!

Good luck.

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Answered on 8/30/99, 3:10 pm


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