Bank Account Monthly Changes in a Trust

[SM150]

I have put together a living Trust for my family in state of Oklahoma. I have included the properties and the bank acount with available balance on the day the Trust was created. My question is: Do I have to change the bank account balance in the Trust papers every month it changes after receiving bank statement?

Thanks in advance
SM150

[flyingron]

There was no obligation to put the balance in at all. I've certainly not got any such in my living trust. I presume you're the grantor. Why is the balance important? If it's because on your death you want assets distributed in some fashion depending on their relative values, you should have your lawyer write/amend the trust to deal with the values at the time that needs to be settled rather than "hard coding" amounts in the trust document.

[pg1067]

I have put together a living Trust for my family in state of Oklahoma. I have included the properties and the bank acount with available balance on the day the Trust was created. My question is: Do I have to change the bank account balance in the Trust papers every month it changes after receiving bank statement?

Do you have to do that? No. What do you think might be the purpose of doing that?

As noted in the prior response, mentioning the balance in the first place was unnecessary (unless your intent was to limit things to that dollar amount). However, I'm curious what you meant when you wrote, "I have included the properties and the bank account," and what you think you accomplished by doing that? If all you did was note in your trust that you own a bank account #123456789 with ABC Bank and that you own real property at 1234 Main Street, then you accomplished very little. Did you sign and file/record transferring title to your real property to the trustee of the trust? Did you change the account holder on your bank account agreement or designate your trust as pay-on-death beneficiary of your bank account?

Did you "put together [your] living [t]rust" by yourself, or did you have a lawyer do it?

[SM150]

Thank you flyingron and pg1067 for responding. I understand now there was no reason to put the balance down. I put the Trust together myself according to a manual I bought on the internet. It is a revocable trust so I can change it and insert only the bank name and account number. Responding to pg1067 I did not transfer the title to trustee, but I have assigned a beneficiary to my bank account at the bank.
Thanks

[pg1067]

Responding to pg1067 I did not transfer the title to trustee, but I have assigned a beneficiary to my bank account at the bank.

Since one of the primary reasons why folks create trusts of this sort is to ensure their real property does not cause their estates to need probate, not transferring title from, e.g., "Joe Smith, an unmarried man, to Joe Smith, as Trustee of the Joe Smith Revocable Trust" may result in the trust not serving the purpose you intended. Also, assigning a POD beneficiary won't get the money in the account into the trust unless the trust (or the trustee) is the designated beneficiary.

You would be well-advised to have an attorney review what you did so that you can be sure the trust will do what you want it to do.

[flyingron]

Unless the trust is the owner of the account (or gets it because the trust was a beneficiary), nothing you write into the trust document has any bearing on that account.

[llworking]

Thank you flyingron and pg1067 for responding. I understand now there was no reason to put the balance down. I put the Trust together myself according to a manual I bought on the internet. It is a revocable trust so I can change it and insert only the bank name and account number. Responding to pg1067 I did not transfer the title to trustee, but I have assigned a beneficiary to my bank account at the bank.
Thanks

You cannot assign the bank account to your trust then at all since it has a beneficiary. The beneficiary gets the money when you pass away so there would be nothing left to put in the trust. You could of course make the trust the beneficiary instead of whomever you have named. If you have other assets with beneficiaries you want to be part of the trust, you would have the same problem.