MJ: He Had a Trust. It Just Had Nothing in It. 🎭🎵

What Does "Funding a Trust" Actually Mean?

Funding a trust means legally transferring your assets into the trust's name. It's not automatic. It doesn't happen just because you signed the trust paperwork. It requires deliberate, specific action for each asset.

Here's what that looks like in the real world:

• Your home: The deed must be legally re-titled from your name into the name of your trust. "John Smith" becomes "John Smith, Trustee of the John Smith Revocable Living Trust." Without that retitling? Your house goes through probate, period.

• Bank and investment accounts: These need to be retitled or have the trust named as beneficiary.

• Business interests: Your LLC membership, shares, or partnership interests need to be formally transferred into the trust.

• Other significant assets: Vehicles, boats, valuables, depending on their value, these may need to be transferred as well (Please speak to an attorney first about these transferring assets that can also create a liability)

Skip any of these steps and those assets fall outside the trust entirely- right back into the public probate system you were trying to avoid.

This Happens More Than You Think

Michael Jackson isn't an outlier. Unfunded or partially funded trusts are one of the most common estate planning problems attorneys see at every income level.

Picture a homeowner in Nassau County who does everything right. She meets with an attorney, sets up a beautiful revocable living trust, signs all the documents, and feels great about it. Five years later she passes away. Her family goes to sell the house and discovers the deed was never retitled. The house is still in her name personally, not the trust's name. Now it has to go through Surrogate's Court before it can be sold, refinancing is frozen, and her family waits months dealing with court paperwork while managing their grief.

Or consider a Queens small business owner who sets up a trust to protect his income-generating  LLC and avoid probate. His attorney drafted the trust perfectly. But nobody ever updated the LLC's operating agreement or membership records to reflect the transfer. The business? Still in his personal name. Still headed straight to probate.

The documents were right. The follow-through wasn't.

An Unfunded Trust Is a False Sense of Security

That's the most dangerous part. People think they're protected. They tell their family “Don’t worry, I have a trust." Their family believes them. And then everyone finds out the hard way that the trust was never funded.

A properly funded trust means:

• No probate: assets transfer directly to your beneficiaries

• No public record: your estate stays private

• No court delays: your loved ones are not waiting on a judge to receive their inheritance

• No forced sales: your home or business isn't rushed to market to resolve estate issues

Michael Jackson had the right idea. He just never crossed the finish line. Don't make the same mistake.

Creating a Trust Is Step One. Funding It Is the Whole Game.

If you already have a trust, when did you last verify that your assets are actually titled inside it? Has your home been retitled? Have you added new accounts or property since the trust was created?  Did you update beneficiaries on all your accounts still in your name?

If you're considering a trust, make sure your attorney walks you through the funding process completely, not just the document signing.

Contact Sammartino & Sultan Law Group today to schedule your estate planning consultation. We don't just help you create the right plan we make sure it's set up to work when your family needs it most.

Because an empty trust doesn't protect anyone. Not even the King of Pop.

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About the Author

Leslie has been practicing law since 2009 and is the host of the estate planning podcast 'Legacy Purse'. She has a long history of representing family members struggling to inherit property and/or wealth from deceased family members through the Probate Courts. Knowing how time-consuming and expensive the probate process is, Leslie takes great pride in helping her clients learn how to plan and protect their families during their lives so they can avoid the probate court process and save their loved ones that additional grief (and expense).