The Trust Funding Checklist | Ridley Law
Quick answer: A trust only controls what’s actually titled in its name. Signing the trust is step one. Funding it, moving your real estate, accounts, and other assets into it, is what actually keeps your family out of probate.
- The failure rate: Most trusts don’t fully work because they were never fully funded, not because they were poorly drafted.
- Real estate: Requires a recorded grant deed naming the trust as owner. A schedule listing the house isn’t enough by itself.
- Retirement accounts: Never retitle an IRA or 401(k) into the trust directly, it can trigger immediate tax. These pass by beneficiary designation instead.
- The threshold: Any asset left outside the trust above California’s small-estate limit, $208,850 for deaths on or after April 1, 2025, forces probate (Prob. Code §13100).
- Maintenance: A 20-minute annual audit, plus a deed back into the trust after every refinance, is what keeps a funded trust funded.
Most trusts are not fully funded. The audit walks you through every account and deed to find what is missing.
What’s inside the guide
- Which asset types actually need to be retitled into your trust, and which ones never do
- How real estate gets moved into the trust, including the deed that puts your home in the trust’s name
- How to retitle bank and brokerage accounts so they’re held by the trust instead of by you individually
- Why a trust that looks complete on paper can still leave your family in probate court
- An asset-by-asset order to work through so nothing on your list gets missed
Does putting my house in a trust trigger a property tax reassessment?
No. Moving your home into your own revocable living trust does not disturb your existing Proposition 13 base year value, and it does not affect your later ability to use an over-55 base year value transfer if you qualify for one. The deed into the trust changes how title is held, not who owns the property for tax purposes.
What happens if I never retitle my assets into the trust?
Nothing happens automatically, and that is the problem. A trust only controls what is actually titled in its name. Any account or piece of property still titled in your individual name when you die has to go through probate to reach your beneficiaries, even though you signed a trust years earlier.
Do beneficiary designations override my trust?
For certain assets, yes. Retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and payable-on-death or transfer-on-death accounts pass to whoever is named on that account’s own beneficiary form, not through your trust. Retitling the account in the trust’s name does not fix a wrong or outdated beneficiary form; you have to check and update that form directly on each account.
If you are not sure whether your own trust is actually funded, start with our trust health check.
Want to track your progress? The Trust Funding Tracker lets you select your assets and check off each one as you complete the funding steps.
The Trust Funding Checklist
A trust is like a bowl. It only controls what you put in it. This checklist is how you finish the job you started when you signed, asset by asset, so your family never sees the inside of a probate courtroom.
The one thing
Eighty percent of trusts are going to fail, and the reason is improper funding. Your trust controls only what it actually holds. Signing the trust was step one. Funding it, moving your assets into the bowl, is the job that finishes the plan. This checklist is how you do it.
| Figure | What it is |
|---|---|
| 80% | Of trusts fail, and the reason is improper funding |
| $46,000 | Combined statutory probate fees on a $1,000,000 estate (Prob. Code, §§ 10800, 10810) |
| 20 min | An annual audit to keep the bowl full |
Start here: why a funded trust matters, and why funding fails
Think of your trust as a bowl. You carry it around, you put things in and take things out as you please, and it holds instructions for what happens after you’re gone. Here’s the catch. The bowl controls only what’s actually inside it. Your house counts only if the deed puts it there. Your accounts count only if they’re retitled or pointed at the trust.
An empty bowl sends your family to probate no matter how good the document is. That’s the gap between signing a trust and having a plan that works. Plenty of good people, and plenty of attorneys, stop at the signing.
Funding fails in predictable ways. A refinance where the lender pulls the house out of the trust and nobody deeds it back. A new brokerage account opened in your own name. An inheritance that lands in your name and never gets moved. The business interest that was never assigned. Any asset sitting outside the trust above California’s small-estate limit, $208,850 for deaths on or after April 1, 2025, is a probate waiting to happen (Prob. Code, § 13100).
The checklist: fund it asset by asset
Work down this list one category at a time. For each, the question is simple: is this asset in the bowl, or headed for probate?
- Real property. The deed has to name you as trustee, and it has to be recorded in the county where the property sits. A trust with your house listed on a schedule but no recorded deed is the single most common funding failure I see. Pull the current deed and read whose name is on it today.
- Bank and brokerage accounts. Retitle the account into the name of the trust, or name the trust as the pay-on-death or transfer-on-death beneficiary. Each institution handles this its own way and each has its own form. Do them one at a time and confirm the change in writing.
- Retirement accounts. Do NOT retitle an IRA or 401(k) into the trust. That can trigger an immediate tax. These pass by beneficiary designation, and whether the trust should be the beneficiary is a decision to make with your CPA, because the tax rules changed under the SECURE Act. Get the designation right; leave the title alone.
- Life insurance. Review the beneficiary designation on every policy. The trust is often the right primary or contingent beneficiary, especially if minor children are involved, but only if the trust is drafted to receive it. Confirm the form matches the plan.
- Business interests. Your LLC membership or corporate shares belong in the trust by a written assignment, and the entity’s own records have to reflect the transfer. An assignment nobody entered into the company books is a fight waiting to happen. Assign it, then update the entity.
- Vehicles and tangible personal property. A general assignment of tangible personal property to the trust usually does the work here, and it covers furniture, jewelry, tools, and the like. For everyday vehicles, retitling at the DMV is usually unnecessary and often not worth the hassle. The general assignment carries the load.
- Out-of-state real property. A California trust can hold property in another state, but that state’s own deed and recording rules apply. You’ll need a deed prepared under that state’s requirements and recorded there. Skip this and your family faces an ancillary probate in the other state on top of everything else.
Asset-by-Asset Funding Checklist
Real Estate
Action: Record a new grant deed naming you as trustee, in the county where the property sits.
How: A deed prepared and recorded with the county recorder. A schedule listing the house in the trust document is not a substitute.
Watch out: A trust that lists the house but has no recorded deed is the single most common funding failure.
Bank Accounts
Action: Retitle each account into the name of the trust.
How: Visit the bank with the trust certification and complete their retitling paperwork, one account at a time.
Watch out: Confirm the change in writing. A verbal assurance from a teller isn’t proof the account actually moved.
Brokerage Accounts
Action: Retitle the account into the trust’s name, or name the trust as transfer-on-death beneficiary.
How: Each brokerage has its own retitling or beneficiary-designation form. Don’t assume one firm’s process matches another’s.
Watch out: A new account opened after the trust was signed, and left in your own name by default, is a common leak.
Life Insurance
Action: Review and, if appropriate, update the beneficiary designation on every policy.
How: A beneficiary designation form filed with the insurer. The policy itself is never retitled into the trust.
Watch out: Naming the trust only helps if the trust is actually drafted to receive and hold the proceeds, confirm that with your attorney first.
Retirement Accounts
Action: Do NOT retitle an IRA or 401(k) into the trust. Review the beneficiary designation instead.
How: A beneficiary designation form filed with the plan custodian. Whether the trust should be named is a decision to make with your CPA under the SECURE Act rules.
Watch out: Retitling the account itself, instead of just the beneficiary form, can trigger an immediate taxable distribution.
Vehicles
Action: Usually covered by a general assignment of tangible personal property, not by DMV retitling.
How: A signed general assignment naming the trust as owner of tangible personal property, including vehicles.
Watch out: Retitling every car at the DMV is usually unnecessary work. Don’t let that chore become an excuse to skip the general assignment.
Personal Property
Action: Cover furniture, jewelry, tools, and other tangible items with a general assignment.
How: One signed general assignment document naming the trust as owner of your tangible personal property.
Watch out: Items above the small-estate limit that were never assigned can still land the family in probate.
The rule people forget: the refinance rule
Here’s the one that quietly undoes good plans. When you refinance, the lender almost always requires the house to come out of the trust to close the loan. That part is normal. The problem is what happens after: nobody deeds it back.
So make it a rule. Every refinance ends with a deed putting the house back into the trust, recorded in the county. Put it on your closing checklist next to the keys. If you refinanced in the last few years, stop reading and go check the deed right now.
Keep it funded: the annual 20-minute audit
Funding isn’t a one-time event, because your life keeps generating new assets. A trust that was fully funded in 2019 can spring leaks by 2024 without anyone doing anything wrong.
So once a year, take twenty minutes. Pull your account list, your deeds, and your beneficiary forms. Ask the same question for each: in the bowl, or not? New account this year? New property? Refinance? Inheritance? Catch the leaks while they’re small and free to fix.
Funded versus not
| Asset left out of the trust | Asset properly funded | |
|---|---|---|
| At death | Probate, if above the small-estate limit ($208,850) | Passes under the trust, no court |
| Cost | Statutory fees; $46,000 on a $1,000,000 estate | Trust administration, a fraction of that |
| Timeline | Commonly a year or more | Weeks to months |
| Privacy | Public court file | Private |
| The fix later | A section 850 petition, if the paperwork supports it | Nothing to fix |
What belongs in the trust, what passes by beneficiary designation, and what’s left exposed
| Titled in the trust | Beneficiary designation | Left in individual name | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Typical assets | Real estate, bank and brokerage accounts, business interests, personal property | Retirement accounts, life insurance, POD/TOD accounts | Anything the owner never retitled or designated |
| How it passes | Under the terms of the trust, no court | Directly to the named beneficiary, no court | Through probate if above the small-estate limit |
| Does the trust control it | Yes | No, the designation controls regardless of what the trust says | No, the individual title controls |
| Common mistake | No recorded deed or no retitling paperwork completed | Designation form never updated to match the trust plan | Assumed the trust covered it because it was signed |
| Fix if missed | Deed or retitle now, or a Prob. Code §850 petition later | Update the form directly with the institution | Probate, or a small-estate procedure if under $208,850 |
For the administration side of this, once a trust is in place, see the living trust and successor trustee pages. If you’re in the first weeks after a death and sorting out what’s funded and what isn’t, start with the first 30 days guide and the trustee’s first 90 days. If an asset was left out and the owner has already died, see our Heggstad petition page.
If someone dies first: the rescue, and why you don’t want to need it
Say an asset got left out and the owner has died. There may still be a rescue. A petition under Probate Code section 850 asks the court to confirm the asset belongs to the trust, usually on the strength of the trust’s own schedule or a general assignment of property.
The law behind it is solid. A schedule listing the property can be enough (Estate of Heggstad (1993) 16 Cal.App.4th 943), and a general assignment of all one’s property can reach real estate when it satisfies the statute of frauds (Ukkestad v. RBS Asset Finance, Inc. (2015) 235 Cal.App.4th 156).
But forgive me for being blunt, because it’s my job: this is a rescue, not a plan. It costs thousands of dollars and months of waiting to fix what a recorded deed would have handled for a fraction of the time and cost. Fund the trust now and nobody ever files it.
Four moves, in order
- Pull every deed and title. Real property, accounts, business interests. Read whose name is on each one today, not whose name you assume is on it.
- Fund what’s outside the bowl. Deed the real property, retitle or point the accounts, assign the business interest, sign the general assignment for tangibles.
- Check the beneficiary forms. Retirement accounts and life insurance don’t get retitled. Make sure the designations match the plan, and loop in your CPA on the retirement decisions.
- Calendar the annual audit. Twenty minutes a year, plus a deed back into the trust after every refinance. That’s the whole maintenance program.
The leaks that sink plans
- A refinance that pulled the house out and never put it back
- A new account opened in your own name instead of the trust’s
- An inheritance or a business interest that was never moved in
- Any one of these, above the small-estate limit of $208,850, sends your family to probate
This is general information about California law, not legal advice, and reading it doesn’t make you a client. The illustrations are illustrations, not case results. The small-estate figure above, $208,850, is current for deaths on or after April 1, 2025 and next scheduled to adjust April 1, 2028; confirm the figure in effect on the actual date of death. Retirement and federal tax points should be confirmed with your CPA.
Sources
- Prob. Code, §§ 10800, 10810 (statutory probate fees for the personal representative and attorney)
- Prob. Code, § 13100 (small estate threshold, $208,850 for deaths on or after April 1, 2025; next adjustment April 1, 2028)
- Prob. Code, § 850 (petition to confirm assets belong to the trust)
- Estate of Heggstad (1993) 16 Cal.App.4th 943 (a trust schedule listing property can be enough to confirm trust ownership)
- Ukkestad v. RBS Asset Finance, Inc. (2015) 235 Cal.App.4th 156 (a general assignment can reach real property that satisfies the statute of frauds)
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A trust is like a bowl. It only controls what you put in it. This checklist is how you finish the job you started when you signed, asset by asset, so your family never sees the inside of a probate courtroom.
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From Ridley Law · Eric Ridley · Estate planning, trust administration, and probate
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