Checklist · Trusts & Estate Planning
Trust funding checklist (United States)
A post-signing list for moving assets into a US trust, separating state deed formalities from beneficiary forms and from FIRPTA when a foreign grantor later sells.
- Kind
- Checklist. Steps or checks to work through and tick off.
- Where it applies
- United States
- AI use
- Yellow You and the tool draft together, with you directing. You check every statement you rely on.
- Law stated as at
- 22 October 2026
- Status
- Maintained. Checked on 22 October 2026 against the authority it cites, for United States.
- Version
- 1
- Source
- Written for this library
When to use it
Use after a revocable trust is signed, when assets still stand in the client's name. Do not use it as the deed, as a beneficiary form, or as an Australian tax-registration checklist.
Used for these tasks
- Build the trust establishment and post-execution registration checklist
- Build an asset-and-ownership table for estate planning
- Map death-benefit and retirement-fund nominations against the deed
- Map control: appointor, guardian, trustee and default beneficiaries
Each task page says how far AI may help with the task and what the lawyer must review.
How AI may be used
A tool may build one row per asset from the ownership table the lawyer has already checked.
AI may
- Copy the asset, the current owner, and the document that shows title
- Mark a land row as waiting on a deed when no recorded deed is in the file
- Mark a beneficiary-form row as waiting when the institution's form is not in the file
AI must not
- Must not draft a deed
- Must not state a witness, notary, or recording rule
- Must not say the will controls an account that has its own beneficiary form
- Must not compute FIRPTA withholding except from a completed file note
The lawyer checks
- Each asset is either retitled, left in the client's name on purpose, or still open
- Land rows name the state of the land and do not describe that state's deed law unless the lawyer has added the citation
- A foreign grantor is recorded before anyone treats a later sale as free of withholding
- The lawyer, not the tool, signs off the list
Method: how the Green, Yellow and Red levels are decided. This is guidance for planning, not legal advice.
Read the full text
The full text is available after you log in. It is free. When you log in you can:
- read the whole precedent, with its drafting notes beside it;
- copy it, or download it as a Word file or Markdown;
- add it to your firm’s knowledge base, so colleagues can find it;
- let the AI tools you connect read it from that knowledge base.
The summary, the law it rests on and the AI-use guidance above stay public. Privacy.
More in Trusts & Estate Planning
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- Client letter on funding a trust (United States)
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- Family trust election, revocation or variation (ATO approved form): completion guide
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- Before a family trust election is made: specified individual, control test and the year
- Trustee resolution and checklist on the vesting of a discretionary trust
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All precedents for Trusts & Estate Planning · Tasks and AI use in this area