Failure to Fund a Trust

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OUTCOME: Probate Court

Recently, we retained a client who is trustee of his mother's revocable living trust. His mom put everything into trust except for one certificate of deposit. Because she failed to make her trust the ... owner (and instead kept herself as title-holder) of a $200,000 CD, the trustee now has to open a probate in Cook County. Now, the poor trustee (and beneficiaries) have to wade through time-consuming and money-wasting probate court when it could have altogether been avoided if the mom just transferred title to her trust.</p> <p></p> <p> A little piece of advice to anyone out there with a trust: make sure you fund it! If not for your sake, for your trustee's and beneficiaries' sakes!</p>