Tranferring Assets To A Trust

[hheller]

We live in Florida. My mother is 85 and has Alzheimers. She is living in an assisted living facility. We recently setup a revocable living trust (along with Power of Attorney, Health care surrogate, Living Will). The Trust has 3 co-Trustees, my mother, my sister and myself. In the Trust document it states that any of the co-Trustees "may act with the full power of a Trustee". This was done so that I could make financial decisions for my mother without having to have her or my sister be involved in everything, but still giving them control if need be.

My question is on transferring assets to the Trust. The attorney that setup the Trust also transferred her Townhouse into the trust, but did not do that for any of here financial accounts. I am finding that the banks that I have spoken to so far are requesting all three Trustees to sign the paperwork. I'm wondering if this is correct? As I said, that whole reason for me to be a Co-Trustee was for me to be able to act as the Trustee, without the other Trustee's having to be involved.

I'm assuming that once the assets are transferred to the Trust, that I would NOT have to have all 3 co-Trustees sign for decisions - it is just to get them put into the Trust. Is this correct?

If I were to open an account at a new financial institution at some later date for the Trust, would I also need all 3 signatures or is it just for accounts that previously existed outside of the Trust?

If I transfer a CD into the Trust and want to move it into another CD at a different financial institution, will it also need all 3 signatures?

I am my mothers Power of Attorney. How does that fit into this?

As I mentioned earlier, my mother has Alzheimers. should I do something to take her off of the Trust as a Trustee? How is that done?

It sounds like the correct way to setup the Trust should have been to name me as the sole Trustee and name my sister as the next in line. Since it's a revocable Trust, my mother could take it back at any time, so I probably didn't need to list her as a co-Trustee. Is that right?

Sorry for all the questions. I'm new at this and hoping I can get things done with minimal paper work to have to bother my mother with.

Thanks for your help.

[seniorjudge]

The bank does not have to accept the trust provisions.

You may need to set up a guardianship over your mother in order to access the bank accounts.

[lwpat]

I think you need to go back to the attorney that set this up for you. He doesn't seem to have explained much to you. I fail to see how he could have set it up with you mother as one of the trustees when she is not competent. If he didn't explain eveything to you, he is incompetent also.

[hheller]

I failed to mention 2 things. I have access to the bank accounts now, even outside of the Trust because all 3 of us are Joint owners of all of her accounts. I want to change that and put them into her Trust.

My mom was able to sign the forms of the Trust even though she has Alzheimers. I helped explain to her what we were doing and why. Are you saying that because the attorney put all 3 of us as co-trustees, that we will always have to co-sign all paperwork? I believe the Trust is already setup to say that if my mother becomes incompetent then the other Trustees somehow take over. Not sure how that works.

Also, I have Power of Attorney. How does that fit in with the Trust?

[hheller]

It seems like a lot of work to transfer multiple accounts to the Trust (it's hard to get my mom around to get all the signature guarantee's that they are asking for). Given that today, all accounts are joint accounts with my Mother, my Sister and me or have My Sister and I as beneficiaries, are there any downsides to leaving it as is (besides the obvious possibility of family fighting over how to split up the assets)? Currently my Sister and I have access to these accounts. After my mothers passing we would just split the accounts.

Thanks.