Funding Your Florida Revocable Trust
§ 736.0401; § 733.707(3)
Signing a revocable trust does nothing on its own — the trust must actually hold title to your assets for probate avoidance to work. An unfunded or partially funded trust is one of the most common and most avoidable mistakes in Florida estate planning, and it leaves exactly the probate the trust was created to avoid.
What it is
A revocable trust, valid under § 736.0401, is a legal container — but a container holds nothing until something is put in it. "Funding" the trust means retitling assets from your individual name into the trust's name: real estate by recorded deed, brokerage and bank accounts by retitling with the institution, business interests by assignment, and, in some cases, beneficiary designations on life insurance or retirement accounts naming the trust as beneficiary. Only assets actually titled to the trust avoid probate at death; everything left in your individual name does not, regardless of what the trust document says.
This is the single most common gap between a Florida family's intent and their actual estate plan. Clients routinely sign a complete, well-drafted trust and stop there — the deed to the house is never recorded, the brokerage account transfer paperwork is never submitted, a new bank account opened years later is never retitled. The trust exists; it just doesn't own anything. At death, those unfunded assets go through exactly the formal or summary probate administration the trust was supposed to avoid.
A pour-over will exists precisely for this failure mode. Drafted alongside the trust, it names the trust as the beneficiary of anything left in the settlor's individual name at death. But a pour-over will is a probate document — assets it catches still have to go through probate to reach the trust, just directed there rather than to individual heirs. Fla. Stat. § 733.707(3) even establishes an abatement order for how those probate assets get applied against expenses and claims before reaching the trust. The pour-over will is a backstop for funding gaps, not a substitute for funding.
Funding is not a one-time task. Every new account, every refinanced property, every asset acquired after the trust is signed needs to be titled correctly from the start or retitled promptly afterward. A trust funded completely at signing and never revisited again slowly becomes an unfunded trust as life goes on — new accounts opened at a different bank, a car titled individually, a vacation property purchased and never deeded to the trust.
Assets That Need to Be Retitled — and Ones That Don't
Funding touches almost every asset class differently. The starting checklist for a Florida trust generally includes:
- Real estate — deeded from your individual name to the trustee of your trust, and recorded in the county where the property is located. Homestead property has additional Florida-specific considerations; see Florida Homestead Devise Restrictions: Planning Around Them.
- Bank and brokerage accounts — retitled directly with the institution into the trust's name, using the certification of trust discussed on our Florida Revocable Living Trust: How the Instrument Works page.
- Business interests — LLC membership interests, corporate stock, and partnership interests assigned to the trust by a written assignment consistent with the entity's governing documents.
- Life insurance and retirement accounts — generally kept as individually owned with a beneficiary designation, which can name the trust as beneficiary where that fits the overall plan; these typically are not retitled into the trust's name outright.
- Vehicles and other titled personal property — can be retitled to the trust, though many families leave lower-value vehicles out given the modest probate benefit relative to the paperwork.
- Anything acquired after the trust is signed — needs to be titled to the trust from the outset, or promptly retitled, rather than assumed to be covered automatically.
The pour-over will, discussed on our Florida Wills: Requirements and What They Cover page, exists to catch what funding misses — but it is a backstop, not a plan. A trust that relies on the pour-over will to do the real work has not actually avoided probate.
Completing the Funding Process
Funding is administrative rather than legal work, but it requires follow-through that many families — and, frankly, many attorneys who only draft the document — do not complete.
- Step 1: Inventory every asset — real estate, financial accounts, business interests, vehicles, and anything else of value — and note current title on each.
- Step 2: Prepare and record deeds transferring Florida real estate to the trustee, confirming homestead and any mortgage lender consent implications first.
- Step 3: Present the certification of trust to each bank and brokerage and complete their internal retitling paperwork — this step is administrative but must be done institution by institution.
- Step 4: Assign business interests using the entity's own transfer procedures, which sometimes require consent from other owners under an operating or shareholder agreement.
- Step 5: Review beneficiary designations on life insurance and retirement accounts and decide, asset by asset, whether the trust should be named as beneficiary.
- Step 6: Confirm the funding was completed — request account statements or a recorded deed copy showing the trust as titled owner, rather than assuming the paperwork went through.
- Step 7: Repeat the process for every asset acquired afterward, and revisit the full inventory periodically to catch anything that slipped through.
Why work with an attorney
Directly responsible for making sure funding actually happens, not just for drafting the trust that needs it. A well-drafted trust that is never funded provides none of its intended benefit, and the failure is invisible until death, when it's too late to fix. We prepare the deeds, coordinate directly with banks and brokerages on retitling, and follow up to confirm each transfer actually completed — rather than handing over a signing packet and a to-do list and hoping the family finishes it.
Frequently Asked Questions
If I signed my trust, doesn't it automatically own my assets?
No. Signing the trust document only creates the legal container. Assets have to be separately and affirmatively retitled — deeds recorded, accounts retitled with the institution, interests assigned — before they belong to the trust. An unfunded trust owns nothing, no matter how complete the document itself is.
What happens if I forget to fund an asset into my trust?
That asset remains titled in your individual name and goes through Florida probate at death, just like it would without any trust at all. A properly drafted pour-over will directs it into the trust once probate is complete, but the family still has to go through the probate process the trust was meant to avoid.
Do I need to retitle my car into my trust?
Usually not essential — many families leave lower-value vehicles titled individually given the modest probate benefit relative to the paperwork, and Florida's summary administration or other streamlined procedures often handle a small remaining estate efficiently. Higher-value vehicles, or a family with many vehicles, may still benefit from retitling.
Should my life insurance be owned by my trust?
Not automatically, and it depends on your goals. Life insurance is typically kept as individually owned with a beneficiary designation, which can name the trust as beneficiary if that fits the plan. Moving actual ownership of the policy into a trust is a different, more specialized structure — see our estate tax page on irrevocable life insurance trusts.
How do I know if my trust is actually funded?
Check the title on each major asset directly — does the deed name the trust as owner, does the brokerage statement show the trust as the account holder — rather than assuming the paperwork was completed when the trust was signed. If you're not sure, a review of your full asset inventory against your trust is worth doing now rather than after a death.
What is a pour-over will, and does it fix an unfunded trust?
A pour-over will directs any asset left in your individual name at death into your trust. It catches funding gaps, but it is still a probate document — the caught assets go through Florida probate before reaching the trust, just directed there rather than to individual heirs. It is a backstop, not a substitute for completing funding while you're alive.
The information on this page is for general informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice or create an attorney-client relationship. Florida law changes. Consult a licensed Florida attorney for guidance specific to your matter.
Make sure your trust actually owns what it's supposed to
An unfunded trust is a document, not a plan. Call (407) 843-0430 or schedule a consultation with our Orlando estate planning attorneys for a funding review of an existing trust, or to fund a new one correctly from the start.
Or text PROBATE to (407) 906-9507 for a faster response.
Yergey & Yergey, P.A. | 910 N. Fern Creek Avenue, Orlando, FL 32803
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