Estate Planning Practice Blog

Transferring Real Estate Into Your Trust.

Think of your Living Trust as a fish bowl -- what's swimming in there is part of the trust.  It is an awkward analogy, but if the "fishies" aren't in there -- the trust does not own any assets. You want the trust to own assets so the successor trustee can manage those assets if something happens to you. Otherwise if your trust does not own any assets, it is useless.

To have your real estate owned by your trust, it requires that you actively transfer ownership of your real estate to the trust.

The way to accomplish this is to prepare a trust transfer deed, grant deed or quitclaim deed (I prefer a trust transfer deed) to transfer title from you as a person to you as trustee of your Living Trust. Then if something happens to you, your successor trustee will be able to take over and manage the real estate in the trust on your behalf and in accordance with the trust document.

Here's how this works:

You own your home in Long Beach. It's titled as John Smith as a single man. You set up a John Smith Revocable Trust dated July 1, 2006.

To transfer this Long Beach home to your trust, you will type up a trust transfer deed granting your home from:

John Smith, a single man to John Smith, Trustee of the John Smith Revocable Trust dated July 1, 2006.

Once you record the deed with Los Angeles County Recorder's Office (where your Long Beach home would be recorded, homes located in other California counties would go to their county recorder's office), the home is officially transferred into your trust.

The trust transfer deed must contain other information such as the mailing address for property taxes, whether any documentary transfer tax is owed (here, for a trust transfer there is no tax owed) and a few other particulars.

You also need to prepare a Preliminary Change of Ownership Report to avoid an additional $20 filing fee to accompany your trust transfer deed at the time of recording.

If you refinance, take out a second mortgage, obtain a reverse mortgage or otherwise change the encumbrances on the real estate in your trust, it may have been taken out of the trust during this time. You need to ensure that the real estate is transferred back into the trust after the financial transactions involving your real estate have been completed. This may mean doing this trust transfer deed process all over again.

As always, talk to an attorney if you have questions or need assistance with your Living Trust.

Exemptions From California Property Tax Reassessments.

Property taxes are a big deal in California. It is based on the value of the property at the time of transfer and whether the transfer from one owner to another constitutes a change of ownership.

Say you transfer your home into your Living Trust. This is considered a change of ownership, but it is exempt from property tax reassessment under California's Revenue and Taxation Code.

Other kinds of transfers are also exempt.

For example, transfers between spouses or registered domestic partners are exempt. As are transfers from parents to children and grandparents to grandchildren.

For more information on this important topic, read this white paper by Betty T. Yee, acting member of the State Board of Equalization as excerpted below:

"California has over a dozen transfers of real property from one party to another that are excluded from treatment as changes in ownership. California Revenue and Taxation ("R&T") Code Section 60 defines “changes in ownership” as a “transfer of a present interest in real property, including the beneficial use thereof, the value of which is substantially equal to the value of the fee interest.” Generally, a change in ownership subjects the recipient of the property to tax reassessment treatment. Statutory exclusions from change in ownership treatment are enumerated in various sections of the R&T Code."