Funding Warning Regarding Bank Accounts
This discussion is exclusively for revocable Living Trusts. Over the past couple months, our office has received a variety of questions from our clients dealing with correspondence from their banks. For clients who have already titled assets in their trust at a bank, our clients have received letters requesting that the trustee appear in person to confirm certain items regarding the trust. There has not been consistency as to each bank as to what they are requesting. However, we would suggest that you utilize the following information as a tool when appearing at the bank:
The grantor of the trust is the trustmaker. For example, if you are a single person, you are the trustmaker of your trust. For married couples who have separate trusts, each person is the trustmaker of their own trust. You are not co-trustmakers if you have separate trusts. For those who have a joint trust, then you would be joint trustmakers. As an example, if Harry and Mary each have their own Living Trust, Harry would be the grantor of his trust and Mary would be the grantor of her trust.
There have been questions regarding the federal identification number of your trust. If you are the grantor of your trust, it is your Social Security Number as the grantor.
One of the questions has been whether the trust is revocable or irrevocable. As pointed out in the first paragraph, this discussion is solely for trusts that are revocable Living Trusts. For a revocable trust, the only person that has authority to amend or revoke it is the grantor or trustmaker of the trust.
We would highly recommend that you provide the bank a full copy of your affidavit of trust. This document is multiple pages. Thus, for a single person, you would provide your affidavit of trust. For a married couple who have separate trusts, you would provide a copy of the affidavit for the trust that owns the account. As an example, if the account is in Harry's trust, then you would provide a copy of Harry's affidavit.
If you have co-trustees on your trust, both trustees must appear in person at the bank. This normally would be true when you first change the account to your trust, but it is also true when responding to these letters for more information that the banks are currently sending.
Please examine all correspondence which you receive from your bank and determine if they prefer that you establish a specific appointment to appear in person and what forms of identification they may require.
It appears that the above items have been requested by the banks and will help you in providing the bank the necessary information.