There may well be events which require you to amend a revocable living trust agreement that you have created. The most common reasons why you might want to amend a revocable living trust include:-

• a change in your marital status;
• a move to another state;
• you adopt or have a new child;
• your child becomes an adult;
• a material change to your financial position or the value of your trust assets;
• a major change in tax law;
• one of your beneficiaries passes away;
• you wish to add a new beneficiary or change existing beneficiaries; or
• one of your trustees dies or is unable or unwilling to serve.

If any of the above events occur, or indeed any other event which is unlisted, you may wish to change the terms of your living trust.

The process required to amend a revocable living trust is quite straight forward. All you need to do is complete a Living Trust Amendment Agreement. Similar to the Living Trust Agreement, the Amendment Agreement will be between you as grantor and you as trustee of your living trust.

The Amendment Agreement will set out the precise manner in which you wish to amend a Revocable Living Trust Agreement and the exact changes to be made. In many cases, you will simply want to change the name of a beneficiary, make a new gift of an asset, or delete an existing gift. This is usually done by providing for the deletion of words or sentences and, in some cases, the replacement of those words or sentences with new ones. The Amendment Agreement will simply set out what these changes are. For example, it may simply say that “The words “John Smith” in clause 7.1 are hereby deleted and replaced with the words “Jack Jones”.

While there is no strict requirement to have an amendment agreement notarized, we do recommend that you have it notarized where it affects the distribution of real estate under your living trust.

How Can EstateBee Help You? 

For more information on living trusts, read some of the other living trust articles on our website.

If you would like some template forms to help you amend a revocable living trust agreement, you can use one of our living trust amendment forms: Revocable Living Trust Amendment Agreement (Single Person) or Revocable Living Trust Amendment Agreement (Married Couple or Couple in Registered Partnership).

These amendment agreements, which have been prepared and approved by lawyers, come complete with step-by-step instructions on completing the living trust amendment agreements; and will allow you to amend your living trust quickly and easily without the need or expense of engaging their own lawyer.

If you have any queries about our products or services, please feel free to contact us.