Is this legal advice?

No, and it is not tax advice either. Termn is not a law firm. Your counsel decided what belongs in the trust. This lists how the assets you ticked typically move and what evidence closes each one, so you can see the size of the job and ask better questions.

Why does my IRA say “do not retitle”?

Because retitling a retirement account into a trust is generally a taxable distribution of the entire account. The trust can usually only be named as a beneficiary instead, and whether that is right for your plan depends on things this page does not know. It is one of the most common and most expensive funding mistakes, so the row says so plainly.

What does “what proves it” mean?

The document you keep afterwards that shows the transfer actually happened: a recorded deed with the recorder's stamp, a letter from the institution confirming the new registration, a title reissued in the trust's name. A signed form you sent and never heard back about proves nothing, and that gap is where funding quietly fails.

Do the names I type into the preparation copies go anywhere?

No. The copies fill in on the page, and the name boxes are not part of the form, so they are not sent with the emailed copy either. The email carries your schedule, never the paper.

We are a firm with a whole book of these

Then the question is not one schedule but how many of your clients are actually funded, which is usually nobody's job to know. The funding audit reads your files and answers it for the whole book, one schedule per client. It is at /funding-audit.

Trust funding checklist

A signed trust that owns nothing does nothing. This is the list.

Tick what you own. This builds the funding schedule: one row per asset naming how it moves into the trust, who has to sign, and what proves it is done. It is the same list, in the same words, that Termn runs a funding engagement on.

Written for anyone who signed a revocable trust, and the office that has to fund it · Needs ten seconds and a rough idea of what you own · Free, and there is nothing to sign up for

Asset	How it moves	Who signs	What proves it
Primary residence	Retitle. A new deed, signed and recorded.	Every current owner, before a notary	The recorded deed back from the county, with its recording stamp
Ask counsel about the loan before the deed is signed, and about your homestead exemption and property tax basis in your state.
Other real property	Retitle. A new deed, signed and recorded.	Every current owner, before a notary	The recorded deed back from each county
Property in another state is recorded under that state's rules, and it is the usual reason a trust still ends up in probate somewhere.
Bank and credit union accounts	Retitle. The bank's own account retitling form.	Every account holder, at the branch or on the bank's form	A statement or letter showing the account in the trust's name

Taxable brokerage account	Retitle. The firm's own retitling or transfer form.	Every account holder	A statement showing the trust as the registered owner
Ask whether the firm opens a new account or retitles this one. A new account number changes every automatic payment attached to it.
Retirement accounts	Designate, never retitle. The plan or custodian's beneficiary designation form.	The account owner, and in some plans the spouse	The custodian's written confirmation of the recorded beneficiary
Retitling a retirement account into a trust is generally a taxable distribution of the whole account. Whether the trust should even be the beneficiary is a question for counsel and your tax advisor.
Life insurance	Designate. The carrier's beneficiary change form.	The policy owner	The carrier's written confirmation naming the trust
Owner and insured are different roles, and changing one is not changing the other.
Annuities	Designate. The carrier's beneficiary change form.	The contract owner	The carrier's written confirmation
Changing the owner of an annuity can be a taxable event. Changing the beneficiary usually is not.
HSA and 529 accounts	Designate. The custodian's beneficiary form.	The account owner	The custodian's written confirmation
A 529 has its own successor owner rules, which are not the same thing as a beneficiary.
LLC or partnership interest	Assign. An assignment of interest, signed.	You, plus whatever consent the entity's own agreement requires	The countersigned assignment and the amended member or partner schedule
The operating or partnership agreement usually says whether this transfer is permitted at all. Read it before signing anything.
Closely held company stock	Retitle. A stock power and a reissued certificate.	You, and the company's secretary to reissue	The new certificate and the updated stock ledger
S corporation stock can only be held by certain kinds of trust. Getting this wrong can end the S election, which is expensive and not always reversible.
Shares held at a transfer agent	Retitle. The transfer agent's own form.	Every registered holder, with a medallion signature guarantee	The reissued registration in the trust's name
A medallion guarantee means a bank visit and is reliably the slowest step on the whole schedule. Start it first.
Vehicles and titled property	Retitle. Your state title agency's transfer form.	Every titled owner	The reissued title in the trust's name
Tell your insurer before the title changes. Some states charge transfer tax on this and some exempt transfers to your own revocable trust.
Valuables and household property	Assign. A general assignment of personal property, signed.	You	The signed assignment, kept with the trust documents
One assignment usually covers everything untitled. Specific, valuable, or insured items are worth naming individually anyway.
A loan somebody owes you	Assign. An assignment of the note, signed.	You, as the current holder	The signed assignment, delivered with the original note
Tell the borrower where to send payments now. A note assigned quietly is a note that keeps being paid to the wrong account.
Cash going into the trust	Contribute. No paperwork: a transfer into the trust's account.	Nobody signs anything	The trust account statement showing the deposit
The trust needs its own account first, which is its own errand and usually needs the certification of trust.
Safe deposit box	Retitle. The bank's own signature card, redone.	Every current lessee, at the branch	The new signature card naming the trust
Whoever is on the card is who can open it. That matters most on the one day nobody wants to think about.
Digital assets	Assign. Varies: the platform's terms decide, not the trust.	You, where the platform allows it at all	Whatever the platform will confirm in writing
Access is the real problem, not title. A key nobody can find transfers to nobody, whatever the assignment says.

Keep a copy

We email you this result, worked out again on our side from the same numbers. It is yours after that: forward it, print it, put it in a file.

Your name optional

Email

Everything here is worked out in your browser. Nothing you type is sent to Termn until you ask for a copy by email.

How it works this out

Every line below is a choice, and a different document can make a different one. A calculator that will not say what it assumed is asking to be trusted on nothing.

Four verbs, and they are not interchangeable: Retitle moves ownership into the trust's name. Designate names the trust on a form the institution keeps. Assign hands over an interest by a signed instrument. Contribute moves money into the trust's own account. Which one applies is a fact about the asset, not a preference.
Three ways a transfer is carried: Some need a real instrument you sign, like a deed or an assignment. Some are carried entirely on the institution's own form, and your version of it is worth nothing. A few are neither, and are simply a movement into an account the trust already has.
A retirement account is never retitled: Retitling an IRA or a 401(k) into a trust is generally treated as a taxable distribution of the whole account. A trust reaches it, if at all, as a named beneficiary. Whether it should be one is a question for counsel and your tax advisor, and this page does not have an opinion about it.
The schedule is not a plan: Counsel decided what belongs in this trust when the plan was drafted. This lists how the things you named would move if they were going in, and what would prove each one arrived. It never says an asset should be in the trust, because it does not know.

Termn is not a law firm, a bank, an escrow agent, or a money transmitter. This is arithmetic on what you typed, not advice about what you should do, and it is no substitute for your own counsel.

The list is short. Working it is not.

Every row ends at a third party who has their own form, their own signature requirements, and no reason to hurry. Termn runs the schedule as a live record: what is out, who it is waiting on, and what came back.

See how Termn runs Trust funding, or read the field guide, Funding a revocable trust, which walks the whole sequence and is free to download. Your first workspace is free, and nothing goes out until you send it.

Common questions

Is this legal advice?: No, and it is not tax advice either. Termn is not a law firm. Your counsel decided what belongs in the trust. This lists how the assets you ticked typically move and what evidence closes each one, so you can see the size of the job and ask better questions.
Why does my IRA say “do not retitle”?: Because retitling a retirement account into a trust is generally a taxable distribution of the entire account. The trust can usually only be named as a beneficiary instead, and whether that is right for your plan depends on things this page does not know. It is one of the most common and most expensive funding mistakes, so the row says so plainly.
What does “what proves it” mean?: The document you keep afterwards that shows the transfer actually happened: a recorded deed with the recorder's stamp, a letter from the institution confirming the new registration, a title reissued in the trust's name. A signed form you sent and never heard back about proves nothing, and that gap is where funding quietly fails.
Do the names I type into the preparation copies go anywhere?: No. The copies fill in on the page, and the name boxes are not part of the form, so they are not sent with the emailed copy either. The email carries your schedule, never the paper.
We are a firm with a whole book of these: Then the question is not one schedule but how many of your clients are actually funded, which is usually nobody's job to know. The funding audit reads your files and answers it for the whole book, one schedule per client. It is at /funding-audit.

Trust funding checklist

The paper, ready to prepare

Keep a copy

How it works this out

The list is short. Working it is not.

Common questions

Finish what the agreement started