People usually name their trust after the name of their loved ones. This is not mandatory. You can name your trust as per your wish but there are a few things you should keep in mind while naming your Living Trust.
Is naming a Trust necessary?
In order to hold a property, a Trust should be Identifiable. That identity is provided by the name given to the Living Trust. You can give any name to your Trust no matter how long or short, easy or complex it is.
What role does a name play in Living Trust?
Choosing the correct name for your Trust is very important because the name you will choose for your trust will be the title of each asset held by that trust.
For Instance, your name is John H. Stephen and the name of your Trust is “John H. and Alice H. Stephen Living Trust”.
If you are the trustee of your Trust and you put your bank account into it, the owner of the bank account would be ”John H. Stephen, Trustee of John H. and Alice H. Stephen Living Trust”.
- The above Illustration is to show what it looks like when you name a Trust along with your full name and how it will appear in the title of the Trust property,
- Instead of naming it “John H. and Alice H. Stephen Living Trust”; it could have been “Stephen Family Trust”. In this way, you can give a short and simple name to your Trust.
What are the other options available to name a Trust instead of a Family name?
It is not mandatory to name your Trust after your family name. You can give whatever name you want to your Trust. But remember to keep in mind that the name you will choose will appear on the asset's title held by the Trust. Refer to the above example for clarification.
If you are creating Trust for a specific purpose or for putting a particular type of asset in that trust, for example, a particular piece of real estate; you might want to name it with the address of the property.
For Instance, if John H. Stephen is naming a trust after a particular property, he may name it “Bobcat Lane Trust” and the title of the property would be “John H. Stephen, Trustee of Bobcat Lane Trust”.
Can I name someone else as the Trustee of my Trust?
Yes. It's totally your choice but it is not advisable to do so. People usually name themselves as the Trustee while creating a Living Trust unless they are incapacitated.
By making someone else the Trustee, you are actually transferring them the right to control your Trust assets while you are still living.
This is not always advised as there may be circumstances where people make someone else a trustee due to different reasons. A classical example of this is celebrities purchasing new homes. They often make a trusted person as the Trustee so their name is nowhere associated with that property.
