Is your living trust actually funded? (How to tell, and how to fund it)

Here’s the fastest way to find out: pull your current grant deed and read the owner line. If it names your trust, something like “Jane Doe, Trustee of the Doe Family Trust,” your house is in. If it names you as a person, the house is not in the trust, regardless of what the trust binder says. A living trust only controls what has actually been retitled into its name. Everything else still goes through probate.

This matters because signing the trust is the easy half. Funding it, meaning moving your house and accounts into the trust’s name, is the half that actually protects your family, and it’s the half people skip. If you’ve ever wondered whether your own plan is the real thing or just an expensive binder on a shelf, you can check it yourself this week. Below is exactly how.

What does funding a trust even mean?

Funding a trust means retitling your assets into the trust’s name so the trust legally owns them. Signing the trust document creates an empty container. Funding is the act of putting your assets inside it. Until that happens, the trust controls nothing: not your house, not your accounts, nothing.

For a house, funding means recording a new deed that transfers the property from your name into the name of your trust. For bank and brokerage accounts, it means changing the account holder to the trust, or in some cases naming the trust as beneficiary. The trust you signed is the instructions; funding is following them. A signed-but-unfunded trust is the legal equivalent of writing a detailed will for a safe and then never putting anything in the safe.

Is our trust actually funded? A self-check you can do this week

You don’t need a lawyer to do a first-pass audit of your own trust. You need an afternoon, your filing cabinet, and a willingness to read the owner line on a few documents. Work through these four things in order.

1. Pull the deed and read the owner line

Find the most recent recorded deed for your home. The owner — sometimes labeled “grantee” — is either you as an individual or your trust. If it says your trust, the house is funded. If it says your name alone, or you and your spouse as individuals, the house is sitting outside the trust. Don’t have a copy? You can order one from your county recorder; in Ventura County that’s the County Recorder’s office, and most California counties let you request a copy online or in person.

2. Check how your accounts are titled

Look at a recent statement for each bank and brokerage account. The account holder is either your name or the trust’s name. Retirement accounts (IRAs, 401(k)s) are different. Those generally should not be retitled into a trust, because that can trigger taxes; instead you handle them with beneficiary designations. So check the titling on taxable accounts, and check the beneficiaries on the retirement ones.

3. Review your beneficiary designations

Life insurance, IRAs, and 401(k)s pass by beneficiary form, not by your trust or your will. Pull each one and confirm the named beneficiary is who you actually want, and that there’s a contingent beneficiary too. A blank or outdated beneficiary form can send money to an ex-spouse or into probate even when your trust is perfect.

4. Find the trust’s schedule of assets

Most trusts include a “Schedule A” or schedule of assets listing what’s supposed to be inside. Find it and treat it as a checklist, not proof. A house listed on Schedule A but never deeded into the trust is still outside the trust. The schedule shows intent; the deed and the account titling show reality. Where they don’t match, reality wins.

How do I put a house into a living trust in California?

You record a new deed transferring the house from your name into the name of your trust, filed with the county recorder where the property sits. That’s the mechanism, and it’s the step the largest share of people skip. The trust can name your house, your intentions can be crystal clear, but until that deed is recorded, the county, and a future court, sees the house as yours individually.

A transfer to your own revocable living trust is generally exempt from property-tax reassessment under California law (Revenue & Taxation Code section 62) and from documentary transfer tax, because you’re not really giving the property to anyone. You still control it. But the deed has to be drafted and recorded correctly, with the right vesting language and the right exclusion forms, or you can create the very problem you were trying to avoid. This is one place where doing it precisely matters more than doing it cheaply.

We did a trust online years ago and never finished it

If you bought a trust online and have a nagging feeling you never completed it, you’re probably right, and you’re in good company. Online trust kits sell you the document. Funding is left to you, usually as a checklist buried somewhere in the packet that most people glance at once and never finish. The documents look official. The house is still in your name.

The good news is that this is entirely fixable while you’re alive, and far more easily than after. Run the four-step self-check above to see what’s actually titled in the trust. Then record a deed to move the house in and retitle the accounts that belong there. The hard version of this problem is the one your family inherits if it’s never fixed, which is the subject of our companion page, the house was never put in the trust, now what. That page is what happens when someone dies with the house left out. This page is how you make sure your family never has to read it.

Can I make my own living trust in California and have it hold up?

A do-it-yourself trust can be legally valid in California if it’s signed correctly, but “valid” and “effective” are not the same word. The trusts that fail in real life usually aren’t the ones with clumsy wording. They’re the ones that were signed and never funded. The document held up fine; the plan didn’t, because the house and accounts were never moved in.

If you write your own trust, every bit of the funding burden lands on you: recording the deed with the correct exclusion language, retitling each account, keeping beneficiary forms aligned, and updating all of it when you refinance, buy a new home, or open a new account. That’s not a one-time task; it’s an ongoing discipline. Some people genuinely keep up with it. Most don’t, and they never find out, because the gap only shows up after they’re gone. If you go the DIY route, at least audit your funding every couple of years with the steps above.

The honest caveat: an unfunded trust avoids nothing

An unfunded trust avoids nothing. This is the part a sales-driven shop won’t lead with: you can pay for a trust, hold a thick binder, feel completely covered, and still send your family straight into the probate you were trying to spare them, because the assets were never moved in. Probate is California’s public court process for transferring a deceased person’s property, and it can run roughly one to two years, with statutory attorney fees set by the gross value of the estate, not the work involved (Probate Code section 10810).

The trust didn’t fail you. The funding did. Signing the trust is the easy half: a good afternoon’s work and a signature. Funding is the half that actually protects the family, and it’s the half that gets forgotten. The fix is almost always cheaper and simpler now, while you’re here to sign a deed, than it ever will be later.

Talk to a real California estate attorney

If you’ve done the self-check and you’re not sure what you’re looking at — or the owner line says your name and you want it fixed right — that’s a short, solvable conversation. I’ll review your deed and trust, tell you plainly what’s funded and what isn’t, and lay out what it takes to close the gaps. No upsell, no binder you don’t need.

Talk to Eric Ridley — a free 60-minute consultation by phone or Zoom, anywhere in California. Or call (805) 244-5291. You’ll leave knowing whether your trust is actually doing its job, whether or not you hire me.

Related reading: The house was never put in the trust — now what? · Will vs. living trust in California · Is LegalZoom good enough for a California living trust?

Frequently asked questions

Is our trust actually funded, and is the house actually in it?

Pull your current grant deed and read the owner line. If it names the trust — something like “Jane Doe, Trustee of the Doe Family Trust” — the house is in. If it names you as an individual, the house is not in the trust, no matter what the trust document says. The trust only controls assets retitled into its name; the rest still goes through probate.

We did a trust online years ago and I don’t think we ever finished it. What now?

That’s the most common situation I see, and it’s fixable while you’re alive. Online kits sell the document and leave funding to you, buried in a checklist most people never finish. Pull your deed and statements to confirm what’s titled in the trust, then record a deed moving the house in and retitle the accounts. Doing it now is straightforward; doing it after death means a court.

How do I put a house into a living trust in California?

You record a new deed transferring the house from your name into the name of your trust with the county recorder where the property sits. A transfer to your own revocable trust is generally exempt from reassessment and from documentary transfer tax, but the paperwork has to be done correctly. This is the single step most people skip — and the step that decides whether the house avoids probate.

What does funding a trust even mean?

Funding a trust means retitling your assets into the trust’s name so the trust legally owns them. For a house, that’s recording a new deed. For accounts, it’s changing the holder to the trust or naming the trust as beneficiary. Signing the trust creates the container; funding puts your assets inside it. An unfunded trust controls nothing.

Can I make my own living trust in California and have it hold up?

A do-it-yourself trust can be legally valid in California if it’s signed correctly, but valid and effective aren’t the same thing. The trusts that fail aren’t usually the ones with bad wording — they’re the ones that were never funded. If you make your own trust, the burden of recording the deed and retitling every account falls entirely on you, and that’s exactly where DIY plans break.

This is general information about California law, not legal advice for your situation.