So you have a revocable living trust. (Good for you!) You have funded it: you hold title to your house, your rental units, your bank accounts and your stock accounts as Trustee of your Trust. (Excellent!) You have told your Successor Trustee how to find your estate planning documents, in case of emergency. (Well done!)
Then, one day, you get hit by a bus – hard enough to put you in the hospital, at least temporarily lacking capacity. Stanley, your Successor Trustee, somehow finds out about your situation. He needs to access your funds, to pay for medication and some can’t-wait first-of-the-month bills.
Stanley knows what bank you use, but the teller won’t tell him anything or give him access to your accounts without seeing “something” in writing from you, some kind of authorization.
He goes to your home, a condo in a gated Senior Citizen community. The guard doesn’t know Stanley, or have any authorization to admit him to the grounds, let alone to your home – even if Stanley has your spare keys in his hand.
What’s wrong with this picture? Lack of access!
How do we fix this picture, before you end up in a hospital or worse?
You are well advised to create mechanisms to give your most trusted people access to your home and other assets. Such mechanisms may include:
1. Supplying your condo’s Homeowners Association with a letter of authorization, permitting entry to grounds and your unit by your Successor Trustee and such others as adult children, a sibling or a best friend. Make sure that the Association’s office keeps such a letter on file, and consider placing a copy with the Board President and any guard gate officer, or at least arrange to have your chosen people listed on a permanent access list.
2. Ask your banker to keep a copy of a Summary of your Trust, listing your Successor Trustee(s), on file. Depending on the terms of your trust, the Successor Trustee may additionally have to furnish physicians’ letters, attesting to your incapacity, or a death certificate, to gain access to information and funds.
3. Make sure that close family members know the name and contact data of your Successor Trustee, to facilitate communication and avoid duplication of effort.
Once you’ve taken care of this unfinished business, you’ll sleep better. Then, just avoid getting hit by that bus.
Jerry Kessler practices law in Santa Clarita. He may be reached at 661-255-1001.