Posted by Brad Crouch on November 16, 1998 at 02:45:45:
Jaydee,
Why would you want to be the trustee of your own trust?
A trust is for the benefit of the beneficiary (or beneficiaries) not the trustee.
The “normal” reason for using a trust is to have privacy. As the trustee, your name is recorded when a deed is transferring a property into a trust (land trust).
Land trusts are “beneficiary driven” or controlled by the beneficiary. Living trusts are “trustee driven” or controlled by the trustee (sometimes can still be directed by the beneficiary).
The idea is to keep your name out of the public records. Since your wife has the same last name as you do, you would be defeating the purpose of having the trust if she were listed as the trustee.
One solution might be to use a friend as trustee until the deed has been recorded, and then create an “addendum” to the trust that installs yourself as “co-trustee” with the same powers and rights as the original trustee.
The trust that Bill Gatten talks about, looks like a revocable living trust to me, rather than a land trust (that’s the PACTrust) even though it’s purpose is to hold real estate (property). This might be useful to you.
Since you don’t say what you want to use this trust for, I cannot be certain really what you need.
Brad