The purpose of this article is NOT to discuss the need , or lack thereof, for an estate plan, or even what a trust is. This merely documents the timeline, as experienced by us.
Sent an email to a recommended lawyer in September, 2021. Lawyer did not get back to us until pinged again on Jan 31, 2022. Sent documents to fill out, requests for information, which we sent immediately. Lots of meetings that were just marketing or to re-confirm information that we had sent in forms. Final documents signed Feb 17, 2023, over one year later. I know of others that were able to get the whole thing done in two weeks.
Deed to House. The trust was created on Feb 17, and at the same time, we signed over the deed to the house, and left it with the lawyer to file. On June 3, we got an email from the lawyer that the deeds had been recorded and returned to her. 3 days later, we received the originals in the mail.
It was our responsibility to move other assets into the Trust.
Retirement stuff like IRA’s and 401k’s can’t go into a trust, so we didn’t need to do anything.
Vanguard made us open a new account, entire process online. When the account was ready 3 days later, had to transfer funds over manually online. No tax consequences. This was by far the easiest transition.
Wells Fargo. Had to make an appointment, and physically go in the next week. Lots of forms to sign, on their digital pad. Retail bank account took about 80 minutes, then 40 minutes for brokerage account. They called an on-demand notary to come in on two occasions. Kept old account numbers.
Chase said that we needed to open a new account. Why, I asked, when Wells Fargo would just change the title, and let us keep account numbers and existing checks? No good answer, but I suspected that it could be because Chase had history as Savings and Loans, not full banks. Decided to not bother. Good time to close extraneous accounts, anyway.
Credit Union. Probably would have made me open a new account. But so little in there, and I almost never use it. Close account.
Fidelity brokerage account. Process entirely online. Filled it out on 4/28. Website said process should take 3 days, and they’ll get back to me. Still hadn’t heard back from them as of 6/7. No indication on website that anything had happened, nor that anything was wrong. Called 800 number. Person there pulled up my account, acknowledged that all the proper paperwork had been uploaded, but said that the account appeared to have been opened by my workplace, from which I had retired over a decade ago. That type of account could not have registration changed. She apologized that no one had advised me of that. No error message, nothing. She said I could open a new trust account, and transfer assets from the existing account. That makes me want to not use the online system – their software errors silently.
TD Ameritrade. Had to fill out a pdf form, and email or upload it. Did that on 5/9. Got an email asking to verify account change. Seemed fine. Then the account transferred to Charles Schwab, who had bought TD Ameritrade. Couldn’t access new account that was the Trust. On the phone for 1 hour with them. First agent couldn’t solve, escalated up. One level up couldn’t solve, either, escalated up. Fixed. Had to create an additional new login at Schwab, then link it to the Trust account. Funny, the Schwab account I had before was working fine before the transition.
State Farm, added the Trust as additional insured to homeowner’s policy. Had to send email with Trust certification. Did that on May 1. Not a peep from them on email that anything had been done. On May 20, got a physical letter that home insurance had the additional insured added. On May 23, got another letter saying the same for earthquake insurance.
Out of state real estate. We had a bare lot (lava land) on the Big Island of Hawaii. 4 years prior, we had transferred it from another trust to ourselves. This was the reverse, transferring it from ourselves to a trust. Wrote a new deed ourselves, had it notarized at a UPS store, and walked it in to the Bureau of Conveyances in Honolulu. No problems. More details here.