Adding a bank account to a trust is a fairly routine procedure. Most banks will require a Trustor to open a new bank account in the name of the trust and thereafter transfer the assets of the non-trust bank account into the new trust bank account. Banks will typically require either a copy of your trust document or a "certification of trust" before creating a trust bank account. Your estate planning lawyer can create the certification of trust for you to sign; however, many banks have, and may require, their own forms to be used.

The appropriate way to title a trust bank account is as follows:

[Name] as Trustee of the [Name of the Trust] dated [Date of Trust Execution]

Trust bank accounts generally should not have signers who are not Trustees of the Trust, and also should not have a beneficiary designation.

Many people wish to avoid letting others know of the existence of their trust. Luckily, most banks allow checks to be printed in the Trustor's individual name  rather than the name of his or her trust. 

Occasionally clients will have bank accounts that have many auto-deposits and auto-debits for things like paychecks and bills. In this situation, the hassle of creating a trust account and re-instating the auto-deposits and auto-debits may take too much time. Therefore, it may be acceptable to retain the bank account in the owner's name individually, with the caveat that the balance should be kept below the threshold necessary to allow his successor Trustee or beneficiary to claim the account using a small estate affidavit (more on this in another post).

If you have a revocable living trust, make sure that you've funded it properly so that your family can avoid the need to probate your estate after you pass away. 

There's no specific prohibition on a lawyer representing Co-Trustees of a Trust. That being said, representing co-trustees can create ethical issues for the lawyer.

For example, if one of the trustees had prior dealings with the lawyer, or if one of the trustees shares confidential information that he or she does not want to share with the other trustees, or if a trustee needs to be shielded from liability from the actions taken by the other trustees, the lawyer may be placed in a situation where he is unable to represent all of the co-trustees fairly. 

As a result, a lawyer must inform the co-trustees of the possibility of conflicts, and must also advise the trustees that should an actual conflict arise, the trustees will need to seek a new lawyer or a lawyer to deal with the actual conflict. Often, making the trustees aware of the lawyer's position at the outset helps to set the expectation that the co-trustees are to work in a cooperative manner to carry out the common goal of administering the trust effectively.

Sometimes a client can get the best of both worlds in terms of technical competence and familiarity with his or her family situation by nominating a personal accountant or lawyer to act as Trustee. The accountant or lawyer, however, must not make the decision to serve lightly as there are possible business and legal consequences of serving as a Trustee of a client's trust.

Firstly, the accountant or lawyer may make significantly less in compensation by serving as a Trustee than he or she would by servicing new or existing clients. So, at least from a business perspective, the accountant or lawyer may be reluctant to agree. Secondly, if the accountant or lawyer knows the client has complicated family dynamics, he or she may decline on the theory that it is better to stay out of family disagreements and maintain at least a semblance of fair relationship with all members of the family. Finally, the accountant or lawyer may be exposed to increased liability (beyond those expected of his profession) by acting as Trustee (not to mention the fact that the accountant's or lawyer's professional liability insurance may not cover situations where he or she is serving as Trustee).

Despite the foregoing factors, accountants and lawyers do frequently serve as Trustee of their client's trust and often the administration process is carried out efficiently both because of the professional's technical understanding and familiarity with the client and the client's family.

One of the primary objectives of using a revocable living trust is probate avoidance; however, this requires re-titling assets in the name of the trust so that others understand that those assets are to be handled pursuant to the terms of your trust. But what does one do for personal items such as jewelry or furniture? These assets generally have no formal registry or records indicating the ownership of the items. 

For personal items, estate planning lawyers usually apply some form of "General Assignment" that evidences one's intent to transfer his personal items to the trustee of his trust. By doing so, one can provide instructions on how personal property should be distributed directly in the trust document.

By allowing the trust provisions to govern the disposition of personal property, a Trustor can easily modify the distributions by simply creating an amendment to his trust, which neither requires witnesses nor notarization. Alternatively, if one were to dispose of his personal items by Will or a codicil to his Will, the modification would have to follow the formal witnessing procedures associated with creating a valid Will or codicil.

For the most part, personal property tends to be handled fairly informally because the items are generally of very little value and therefore not worth fighting over. Nevertheless, handling personal property through the trust can reduce potential complications for the successor Trustee of your trust in the future.