Video Summary

What is a testamentary deposit account? While testamentary means who you want to receive something upon your death. The most common form of a testamentary deposit account is one where you set it up with the bank and put the initials on it: P O D upon your death, if there’s any money in there or whatever money’s in there, it’s payable to whoever you’ve designated whenever you opened the account. And so they would be the beneficiaries, which would be a testimony account ITF, which is in trust for which is,  did the same thing where you would hold the money in your name, but the account would be in your name and then upon your death, that would designate who would receive the account. So those are a couple of examples of testamentary accounts, which would pass to your beneficiaries upon your death. And that’s all set up through your banking.  Also if you have brokerage account, you can set those up and those initials are T O D, which stands for transfer on death. So if you have an account, let’s say with, Merrill Lynch, you can in your name and you want to go to your son’s name, but not have he not have any access during your lifetime, you can check with your broker and say, I’d like to, make this account, go to my son automatically. And then they can set up an account with T O D, which means transfer on death, which would operate the same as a bank account. If you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.

Video Summary

Why would I need to open a trust account? If you set up a revocable trust for state planning purposes, you should set up your bank account. So. it shows you as trustee of your revocable trust. The reason for that is, is so that the provisions, the trust will control because if you leave the, the accounts just in your name, well then particularly if you set it up to avoid probate, you would have to probate your estate in order to have the accounts be placed in your name, either your successor’s name as trustee of the trust, so that they could then be distributed. So if you want your trust to control your bank accounts on who it goes to upon your death, you need to title them in your name as trustee under your revocable trust. So that is the reason why you would want to open up a bank account and the name of your name as trustee of your trust. If you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.

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What are the drawbacks of a living trust? Well, the biggest drawback that I see the living trust is that it’s a complicated document. And then once you sign it you have to rely upon what the lawyer tells you. It says, rather than you’re trying to understand 16 or 17 pages of legal jargon. I always ask folks why they want to set up a trust. And if the simple reason for this is to avoid probate,  I go through and I ask them, well, what assets do you have? And that’s simply a matter of real property, some bank accounts and a brokerage account. Those can be, we can avoid probate through titling. If you just have a, a couple of beneficiaries, if you wanna set up a trust because a person is disabled and you want them,  a special needs trust.
So they don’t receive the money. Well, that’s a good reason to set up a living trust. Another good reason to set up a living trust is if you need to protect the beneficiaries from spending all the money, if they’re, either have some addiction problems, or they’re not good money managers, you want their money to be held until they reach a certain age, although they may receive the income. One of the other disadvantages of a living trust is the cost to set them up in that’s usually there more expensive. I would also do not unless under severe duress ever set up a joint trust between husband and wife. I still do, but it’s usually it’s not needed particularly to avoid probate. And also you don’t want to put at your homestead property, your home into a joint trust. It creates problems as far as when the first spouse passes away. So if you have any questions about setting up a trust, give me a call and (727) 847-2288.