How to Amend or Revoke a Revocable Living Trust

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It is common for people, as part of the estate planning process, to establish a revocable living trust to provide for the disposition of trust assets outside of probate. Occasionally, people who previously established a revocable living trust want to amend or modify or revoke their trust.

Reasons why people would amend their revocable living trust include someone wanting to change the beneficiaries of their trust; someone wanting to amend how a beneficiary receives his or her portion or share; or perhaps changing the name of the Successor Trustee who is in charge of administering the trust after the death of the Settlor (the person who established the trust).

So, how do you amend or revoke your trust? Well, you must first look to the state law of the state that governs the trust instrument. The following is an overview of the law applicable to modifying or revoking a trust.

What you should never do is pull out a pen and pencil and start marking on your trust. None of this will be valid. Most trust amendments or revocations in are done by authentic act. An authentic act, generally, is a writing executed before a notary public and two witnesses, and signed by the person amending their trust, the witnesses, and the notary. Most trust amendments are done this way.

The Trust Code also provides for modifying a trust by act under private signature, and also by testament. Even though law provides for three different ways to modify a trust, most amendments are done through an authentic act.

Bottom line - don't try to amend or revoke a will or trust without getting some legal help from an estate attorney. Different rules apply to wills and trusts, and you must work with an attorney who understands all of this and helps you get it right the first time - there is too much at stake.

This post is for informational purposes only and does not provide legal advice. Please do not act or refrain from acting based on anything you read on this site. Using this site or communicating with Rabalais Estate Planning, LLC, through this site does not form an attorney/client relationship.

Paul Rabalais
Estate Planning Attorney
www.RabalaisEstatePlanning.com
Phone: (225) 329-2450