Free The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom by Suze Orman Page B

to manage and invest the assets of the trust, although all trustees must agree to financial or investment changes. Parents often choose to make their children co-trustees, upon the deterioration or disability of the parents. Couples usually set up their trusts so that they’re both co-trustees and therefore both must agree to any changes.
    Successor trustee:
This is the person who steps in to make decisions about the assets in the trust if and only if the trustee or co-trustees cannot or do not want to act in the decision-making process. Annie was Sarah’s successor trustee and became her trustee once Sarah no longer wanted the burden of decision making.
    Current beneficiaries:
The person or persons for whom all of this is being held in trust. Sarah was the current beneficiary of her own trust.
    Remainder beneficiaries:
The person or persons who will inherit everything in the trust after the current beneficiary (who is usually the trustor as well) dies. In our case history Annie was a remainder beneficiary. Sarah had wanted William to inherit some assets outright, so he was a remainder beneficiary as well. Peter, to whom Sarah had left the $10,000, was another remainder beneficiary.
FUNDING YOUR TRUST
    What good is an empty suitcase when you leave to go on vacation? Not much. Nor is an empty trust much good. By itself, thedocument establishing the trust means nothing until the trust assumes ownership of the things you intend to put into it.
    In other words, once the trust has been set up your assets must be transferred into it. This means that if John and Jane Doe owned a house together in their own names, after they established their trust they would have a new deed issued that would list the owner as
John and Jane Doe, trustees for the John and Jane Doe Revocable Living Trust
. The Does would also change the titles on their stock portfolio, their insurance policies, bank accounts, and so on. Doing this is simply a matter of paperwork.
    Computer programs and books about trusts provide sample letters to show you how to fund your trust. If you have a lawyer draw up your trust, he or she will have form letters available to show you. Or the lawyer can handle changing the titles for you; even if the fee is higher than that for simply drawing up the trust, it might be well worth it—different institutions have different requirements for making the change.
    Failing to transfer assets into your trust can be costly. Let’s say, for example, that you were lucky enough to have a certificate of deposit at the bank worth $100,000. Put that CD into your trust, and though there might be estate taxes for your beneficiaries to pay, there would be no probate. Forget to put it into the trust? That mistake would cost your beneficiaries up to $5,000. All assets that have a title on them—such as your bank account (both checking and savings), brokerage account, certificates of deposit, Treasury instruments, and all accounts that have your name on them—need to be transferred into the name of the trust. Every institution has a form that it uses to make this transfer easier for them. Make sure, if your lawyer is not doing this for you, that you contact each place, get the correct paperwork, and fill it out immediately to make the transfer.
PROVIDING FOR YOUR CHILDREN WITH A TRUST
    Okay, you’re thinking, this all makes great sense. But I’m only thirty-nine, and I did a will when we had children. The will says to whom the kids would go if something happened. My best friend, Joe, would be the guardian; we’ve already talked about it. Plus I don’t really have that many assets yet, though I have a nice-size life insurance policy, just in case. That trust sounds like a good idea for when I’m older.
    Not true. Particularly when you have children, the earlier you set up your revocable living trust the better, even if you don’t have a lot of money. If your children are very young, and if anything were to happen to you, they could be at