Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California
Living trust revocation
In 1998 a living trust was drawn for me in California which I never funded. I now live in Oregon & want to revoke it. Should I follow CA or OR law? Is there a govt. bureau where this document must be filed?
3 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Living trust revocation
An unfunded trust is a legal nullity. It may be that that you signed a will or a pour over will however. That you will want to destroy or explicitly revoke in new estate planning docs.
I recommend you get a free download of my Special Report, "The 7 Most Common Mistakes Made by the Middle Class in Planning For the Inevitability of Death and the Likelihood of Disability, and How to Avoid Them." You can get it at my site, www.IWant2CreateMyLegacy.com. You should probably also get my book, Create Your Legacy & Save the American Middle Class. It contains the information that I developed for lay audiences in hundreds of seminars to thousands of people. It will answer nearly all of your questions about how to protect a family from the financial catastrophe that can often accompany the inevitabilty of death and the likelihood of disability. And answer a lot of important questions you never thought to ask. Both are terribly important. A lot of people don't realize that conservatorship is the fastest growing lawsuit in America and the average conservatorship lasts 3 years today. That is because medicine has gotten better and better at keeping us "alive" ofen under the worst circumstances.
The book contains a copy of the "LEGACY LIVING TRUST PACKAGE". It is, as far as I know, the only complete living trust planning package written in what I call "people ease" rather than legalese. Anyone reading at a 10th grade level should be able complete the package themselves with the information in the book. It is designed to be valid in all 50 states and even contains forms for making amendments when the desire to do so appears.
The book is $29.95, the best investment you'll ever make. About the cost of a six minute consultation with me personally. One can download the trust package for $79.95. For more info or to buy the book, go to www.IWant2CreateMyLegacy.com.
You may want to log in on my blog on that website or on www.MWRoth.com, and create an RSS Feed on your E-mail system since I will be beginning shortly a 3 month regular post on the topic of asset protection for the middle class.
Re: Living trust revocation
The benefit of the living trust is that it is a private document. You don't need to file the trust document anywhere.
However, if you had retitled some property in the name of trust, you have to be very careful how you revoke your trust.
Re: Living trust revocation
No government bureau. If you truly never funded it, I would destroy the original and all copies. Then if you create a new trust, make sure to specifically revoke any previously drafted trust documents and call the new trust by a different name.
Trusts only have power over those assets you place in it, if you have no assets in the trust... then it really is ineffectual.
But for the sake of limiting confusion if nothing else, I would destroy the documents.