Establishing an estate plan is just the first step in preparing for your future care and the future care of your loved ones. If you have chosen to set up a trust for tax and probate purposes, it is important to stick to a regular schedule of funding your trust.

Funding your trust is the process of re-naming your assets so that they are in the Trust’s name and therefore separate from your estate. Generally, trusts hold certain types of assets, such as annuities, stocks, bonds, mutual funds and life insurance policies. Funding a trust is critical, since only those assets that are officially contained within your trust are legally protected.