Joint decisions
Identify the co-grantors, initial trustees, authority while both can act, authority if one cannot act, and the order of successor trustees.
Trust Services
Couple Living Trust
A couple’s intake must distinguish shared and separate property, each person’s choices, successor roles, and instructions for incapacity and death.
Property character
Separate, community, jointly owned, and individually titled assets may require different analysis, schedules, transfer documents, or professional advice.
Family instructions
Document beneficiaries, children, guardians, blended-family concerns, death-order scenarios, continuing trusts, and alternate distributions.
What to consider or prepare
- Both legal names, marital details, and current residence
- Children, other beneficiaries, guardians, and successor trustees
- Shared and separate property categories and current titles
- Instructions after the first and second death
- Existing agreements, wills, trusts, deeds, and beneficiary designations
Important: State marital-property, homestead, elective-share, creditor, and tax rules can affect a couple’s plan. Legal and tax review may be necessary.