What does it mean to fund a trust?
To fund a trust means you are taking the title of a particular asset and titling it in the name of the trust. You are naming that asset to be owned by that trust. Typically it’s John Smith as trustee of the John Smith revocable trust dated such and such a date. You’re actually taking the asset that was otherwise in John Smith’s name, and transferring it and naming it as the owner of the trust through the trustee, John Smith, trustee of the John Smith revocable trust. It’s a necessary process to complete the trust plan, and many people forget to fund the assets in the trust which means you haven’t effectively used your trust plan.