Here you will list the property you wish to transfer to your RLT immediately. Upon creation, an RLT is empty and useless until funded with assets.
There are two ways the trust can become funded: (1) During your lifetime, you can transfer property into the RLT; (2) Upon your death, your pour-over will transfers all of your remaining property to your RLT.
After your death, some items may be more difficult and costly to transfer than during your lifetime. Thus, it is important to list all of the items you want transferred to the RLT now. Real property should be transferred to the RLT during your lifetime by deed (listing these properties here may be useful in case you die before transferring the real property into the RLT).
Contact a real estate attorney in your area if you need assistance with this process, and be sure to contact your lender if you have a mortgage on any real property to ensure that the lender will permit the transfer of the real estate into your RLT.
Banks and brokerages will generally require that you retitle these accounts in the name of the RLT. Unless they are expensive or numerous, automobiles and other vehicles are often not transferred to an RLT; doing so may cause problems with registration and insurance.
Listing cars without retitling them is generally acceptable. Ten dollars cash is always listed as the first trust asset to avoid any state law indicating that an unfunded trust is not valid or ceases to exist.
You can add additional property later on by listing it, and signing and dating the addition. You can do the same for a deletion, except that if the title was changed, the title needs to be restored to its original state.
Please note that in New York state, all assets that are capable of being retitled into the name of the RLT, including real property, bank and brokerage accounts, and vehicles, must be formally transferred into the name of the RLT during the grantor’s lifetime.
Example:
1. Ten dollars cash
2. The residence commonly known as 1000 Any St., Los Angeles, CA 90001
3. The contents of that residence
4. All other real property
5. All bank, stock brokerage, and other financial and securities accounts of any kind (but excluding 401k and IRA retirement accounts)
6. Small business interest: My share of my business partnership with Thomas Day in our beauty salon business “Los Angeles Hair Care”.