If you suspect that a loved one died with a trust, it’s worth taking the time to find the document.
In this guide on finding a trust, you will learn what to do if you lost your trust, how to find out if a trust exists, and valuable tips for locating a trust after the death of the trust creator.
Do you believe you may have been named in a trust? Are you wondering how to find a living trust in California? If you have reason to believe a decedent may have named you as a beneficiary or trustee in their trust, it’s worth your time and effort to try to secure a copy of the document. By nature, a trust is not the easiest document to locate: It’s designed for privacy, bypasses the probate process, and is not found in public records. However, if a trust does appear to be lost, there are actions you can take to reclaim it. Where are trusts recorded? How do you go about finding a trust? While we will discuss how to find a trust in California in a later section of this article, it is important to first talk about how a trust is different from a will and why the process of locating a trust is more complicated.
TELL US WHAT HAPPENED. WE’LL BE IN TOUCH SOON. Table of Contents How Does a Trust Work After the Settlor's Death? Who Has Information About the Location of the Trust? How to Locate a Trust Document in California FAQs About How to Find Trust DocumentsAfter a trust creator (known as the settlor, trustor or grantor) dies, their trust will operate in a similar manner to an estate, with the main exception being that trusts generally are not subject to probate. A trust is a type of legal arrangement in which a fiduciary, known as a trustee, is granted the authority to hold assets for the benefit of trust beneficiaries. For an asset to be held by a trust, the owner of the asset must transfer title to the asset into the trustee’s name. Until this step is taken, the asset will not be regarded as belonging to the owner’s trust; it will be regarded as belonging to their estate. This distinction may not make much of a difference while the owner of the asset is alive; however, once they die, whether an asset belongs to their trust or estate will play a crucial role in how and to whom the asset is ultimately distributed. Learn more about how a trust works after death.
If a decedent dies with an estate valued at more than $184,500, their assets will be subject to probate — which is a court-supervised process to appoint an executor or administrator and validate the decedent’s will, among other things. Any assets that are not included as part of the decedent’s trust or being distributed via beneficiary designations (i.e., direct transfers) are regarded as belonging to the decedent’s estate. Probate is a public process to enable parties who believe they have a claim to a portion of the decedent’s estate to make their case. As such, a decedent’s will is public record and generally can be located by a quick trip to the courthouse in the county where probate has been opened. A trust is significantly more private than an estate, since its assets generally are not subject to the probate process. In fact, many opt for a trust as their primary estate planning document because of its ability to bypass probate, which can not only eliminate hefty probate fees but allows trust beneficiaries to potentially receive their distributions from the trust faster. While the privacy a trust offers comes with many benefits, it can make it more difficult for the appropriate parties to locate the trust after the settlor dies, especially if they did not leave behind any instructions for how to find their trust document. Additionally, because no notaries or witnesses are required to execute a trust, as they are for wills, there may not be anyone who can confirm or deny the existence of a decedent’s trust document. For a will to be presumed valid and used to direct the disposition of estate property, its original version must be filed with the court; a copy of the will won’t suffice absent additional proof demonstrating the validity of the will. On the other hand, for trust administration to launch, a copy of the trust will work just fine.
In your search for how to find trust documents, it may occur to you to ask whether they are recorded somewhere. While that’s a reasonable question, the fact is, trust documents generally avoid the court completely. As such, they are not matters of public record. This means that you likely will not be able to secure a copy of the trust from the Office of the County Clerk or the courthouse in the same way you would a will.
Trust documents generally are not a part of the public record because only the trustee and the trust document are needed to launch trust administration. In other words, a trust generally does not need to pass through any court-supervised processes before its assets can be distributed to the appropriate beneficiaries. However, the trustee still will be responsible for completing certain administrative steps before making trust fund distributions. While a trust’s avoidance of probate has its advantages, it means that beneficiaries and other interested parties will not be able to easily access trust documents if the trustee has failed to provide them with copies. Estate beneficiaries would not have the same problem. If you are an interested party to a trust who has not been provided with copies of trust documents, it is essential you hire a probate attorney to help you secure the documents you need to enforce your rights.
If you are seeking information about a decedent’s trust, there are some exceptions to the rule of trusts not being a part of the public record to be mindful of. For example, if the trust holds real estate, it’s possible the deeds transferring title to the properties into the trustee’s name were recorded with the county clerk. While that does not mean the trust itself would be recorded, an inspection of property records may be able to confirm the trust’s existence. The trust, likewise, may be public record if it has been the subject of trust litigation, such as a property dispute (e.g., 850 petitions) or trustee misconduct claim. The last instance in which a trust could be public record is if it is a testamentary trust, or a trust that was created by the terms of a will. Testamentary trusts use a will to nominate a trustee, name trust beneficiaries and identify and dispose of trust assets; however, they are formed after probate and through a will, which means they are public record.
