Florida Trust Funding Checklist
A signed trust controls nothing until assets are moved into it. Work through this list asset by asset, mark what is done, and see what still needs a deed, a form, or a lawyer. Your progress stays in your browser.
Quick answer: Fund a Florida revocable trust by deeding real estate into it, retitling bank and brokerage accounts (or naming the trust as pay-on-death beneficiary), assigning business interests, and updating life insurance beneficiaries to match the plan. Do not retitle retirement accounts; update their beneficiary forms instead. Leave ordinary vehicles out. Anything left in your own name with no beneficiary goes through probate no matter what the trust says.
Set each item to Done, In progress, or Not applicable. Your progress is saved in this browser only, and nothing is sent to us. Open "How this gets funded" under any item for the steps and the traps.
This checklist is general information for Florida revocable trusts, not legal advice, and it does not know the terms of your trust or your accounts. Items marked "Lawyer" involve a deed, an assignment, or a designation that should be drafted or reviewed by an attorney. Items marked "Do not" are the common mistakes.
What "funding" means, in one paragraph
A revocable living trust controls only what is titled in its name or pays to it at death. Signing the trust creates an empty container. Funding it is the work of moving things into that container: recording a new deed for real estate, retitling accounts, assigning business interests, and changing beneficiary designations so they point where the plan says. Anything you skip stays in your own name and goes through probate, which is exactly what the trust was supposed to avoid. Half-funded trusts are the most common estate planning failure in Florida, and the reason is not carelessness; it is that funding is tedious and involves a dozen institutions that each have their own form.
The three routes, and which one each asset takes
Everything you own passes at death by one of three routes. Title: an asset owned by the trust passes under the trust. Designation: an account with a beneficiary form (retirement accounts, life insurance, and accounts marked pay-on-death or transfer-on-death) passes to whoever is on the form, and the form overrides your will and your trust. Probate: anything left in your own name with no designation goes through the court. The checklist assigns each asset type to the route that usually fits, and flags the ones where the wrong route is a real problem, like retitling a retirement account (a taxable withdrawal) or naming a minor child on a life insurance form (a court-supervised account until the child turns 18).
What our clients receive with every trust
Funding is not optional in how we run an estate planning engagement. Every trust we draft comes with the deed for the Florida homestead, written funding instructions that go asset by asset through what to retitle, what to designate, and what to leave alone, the exact wording to use when titling an asset in the trust\'s name, a certification of trust to hand to banks and brokers, and the assignments for business interests, notes, and personal property. The account and beneficiary changes are yours to make, with your advisor, banker, or agent, and the instructions tell you what confirmation to keep. Every confirmation goes in the trust assets section of your trust portfolio, so that at any moment there is one binder that proves what the trust owns. If your trust came from another firm or an online service and no one ever walked you through this list, that review is a defined piece of work we take on a flat fee, and it usually starts with a copy of the trust and this checklist filled in.
Keep it funded
Funding is not a one-time event. Every new account, every refinance that takes the house out of the trust and forgets to put it back, every new policy or property bought in your own name is a leak. The last item on the list is the habit that fixes it: when something new comes in, title it in the trust or name the trust, then and there.
Frequently Asked Questions
I signed my trust years ago. How do I know if it is funded?
Pull the deed for your house from the county records and see whose name is on it. Log into each account and look at the registration and the beneficiary. If the trust's name is not on the deed and not on the accounts, the trust is not funded, whatever the binder says. Run through the checklist above and mark each item honestly; the gaps are the work.
Will putting my house in the trust cost me my homestead exemption?
Not when it is done correctly. Florida treats the person who keeps the beneficial interest in a trust as still entitled to the homestead exemption, and a transfer between legal and equitable title for the same owner is not a change of ownership for the assessment cap. The deed has to be drafted with that in mind, which is why it is a lawyer item on the list.
Should I name my trust as the beneficiary of my IRA?
Sometimes. A spouse is usually the primary beneficiary. Naming the trust makes sense when the beneficiary is a minor, has special needs, or should not receive a lump sum, but the trust must contain specific provisions for retirement accounts or the tax result can be worse. Never move the account into the trust itself during your life.
What if my trust was drafted by another lawyer or an online service?
That is most of the funding reviews we do. We read the trust, go through this list with you, prepare the deed and any assignments, and give you a written funding memorandum for the accounts. It is a defined-scope, flat-fee engagement, quoted in writing after an initial consultation.
Is this checklist legal advice?
No. It describes how Florida revocable trusts are usually funded and the common mistakes. Your trust, your accounts, and your family may call for something different, which is what the first conversation is for.
Bring the checklist. We will handle the deed.
Trust funding reviews and full estate plans are flat fee, quoted in writing after an initial consultation that is free for estate planning matters. English or Spanish.
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