Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California
I want to make sure our Trust is funded correctly. On our Wells Fargo account, my husband's statement would read:
HIS NAME
POD: TRUST NAME
Does naming the Trust as the POD beneficiary mean that my husband's Wells Fargo accounts are already under our Trust?
In my Chase account, my statement reads
TRUST NAME
MY NAME
I know every bank is different, but I think this is how the bank statements should be?
On another account, I got confirmation from the bank that my request to transfer my account to a Trust has been done, but the monthly statement still says my individual name with no mention of the Trust. Should I follow up with the bank to make sure the account name has been transferred to our Trust?
Thank you!
2 Answers from Attorneys
Your husband's account will be paid to the trust on his death. The account is not currently a trust asset. On the other hand, your account is a trust asset.
On the other account, you may want to check with the bank again.
Normally, it would be something like: John Smith & Mary Smith, Trustees Smith Family Trust (or whatever the name of the trust is) u/t/d 01/01/2014 (the date of the creation of the trust.
As a rule, however, it's probably best to keep your day-to-day checking account out of the trust and add someone to it. The account title you wrote is pay-on-death to the trust, but you're not on title now, only your husband is. Ideally, this account should be in joint tenancy between the two of you so that you may write checks if he were to become incapacitated without having to struggle at the bank trying to you his power of attorney (assuming he has one).
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