What does it mean to fund your Oklahoma living trust agreement?

Consider this:  You build a house.  It takes a year, a lot of money and a lot time.  When it is complete and ready to move into, what do you have?  

An empty house. Until you move your possessions into the house, the house is empty and vacant.

So to it is with an Oklahoma revocable living trust agreement:  When you sign the trust agreement and bring it to life, what do you have?  An empty trust.  Until you move your possessions into it, the Trust has nothing and is of little to no value to you.  The process of moving your possessions into your trust agreement is known as “funding” the trust.

An example may be helpful. 

One item that is most important to transfer to your trust agreement is your home.  Assuming your house is owned by you, if you pass away with it owned by you, your family will have to file and complete a probate case to change the title.  You can avoid this probate by transferring title to your home to your trust agreement.  We do this for you using a deed, as part of the estate planning process. 

Transferring title to your home to your trust agreement is funding the trust. 

Posted by Shawn Roberts

On this blog, I write about and try to answer practical Oklahoma legal questions. My focus and most experience is in estate planning and business issues including Oklahoma non-compete law. I make a living as an attorney in the law firm I founded, Shawn J. Roberts, P.C. in Oklahoma City. I live in Edmond with my wife Amy and my two children, Sam (19) and David (11). We live precisely in the path of where the "wind comes sweeping down the plains."