So you went to an estate planning attorney, got your living trust together, and executed all the papers. But the one thing you forgot to do is title your properties properly, indicating you are holding them as the trustee of your trust. Failure to properly title your properties can cause title problems down the road, which may require your family members to open a probate to properly transfer title to the property into your trust.
In California, there is a procedure that can confirm a decedent’s assets into your living trust commonly known as the Heggstad petition, which came out of the case Estate of Heggstad, 16 Cal. App. 4th 943 (1993). A Heggstad petition can save your estate from conducting a full-blown probate, but it can still set your family back in attorney’s fees to perform the Heggstad petition. To avoid the problem entirely, you should ensure that your assets are properly titled, indicating your trustee holds title to the property on behalf of the trust. If you refinance your properties after your living trust was created, you should make sure the properties are properly titled to the trustee of your trust, since many times lenders will require an individual to transfer their properties out of their trust and into the individual borrower’s name in order to record a deed of trust on the property to secure your property as collateral for the loan. If you are unsure how you currently hold title to your property, a quick trip to the county recorder’s office or a call to a title company can reveal how you are presently holding title to your property.
