A revocable living trust gives you the flexibility to make changes to the terms of your trust agreement whenever necessary. In many cases, you can even revoke the trust at any time.
You Don’t Have to Amend a Trust to Add Property
Living trusts are already set up and designed to deal with accepting additional property you might want to fund into them over the years. That’s their purpose, after all—to hold onto your property for you so it bypasses probate at the time of your death.
How to Amend a Revocable Living Trust
You can make changes to your trust in one of three ways. Which is best depends on what you want to amend and other circumstances. Option 3 is radical, time consuming, and often expensive. It might only be necessary if you’re making sweeping, significant changes to your initial trust agreement. A trust amendment or restatement is typically appropriate if you just want to change or add beneficiaries, if you marry or have a child, or if you divorce, always assuming your ex isn’t a co-trustee.
A Trust Amendment
A trust amendment changes one or more provisions of the trust without revoking or undoing it, but this method can become confusing if you make numerous changes, amending again and again over the years. Your successor trustee—the individual who takes over to manage and settle the trust at the time of your death or if you should become mentally incompetent—might have several additional documents to sort through and make sense of if you create numerous amendments.
Trust Restatement
Restating your trust involves creating a single document that states that you’re not revoking the original trust agreement but are restating it with some amendments. Your trust stays in place, and you don’t have to move property out of it then back into it as you would if you revoked the trust entirely. The restatement document is sometimes referred to as an “amendment and restatement of declaration of trust.” It details your changes. The restatement document should specifically say that all other provisions of your trust remain the same, or you can repeat the contents of your original trust agreement while incorporating your changes. The result is the same: Your trust wasn’t undone or revoked, so you don’t have to retitle all the property it holds. It can continue to hold ownership of all assets you’ve placed within it as long as it’s not formally revoked.
If You’re Married
Either you or your spouse can generally revoke your revocable living trust at any time if you’re co-grantors and co-trustees—you formed the trust and have managed it together. You must both agree to the changes in writing, however, if you want to change provisions, either with an amendment or a restatement.
