Lawyer Recommendation for Xfer to Trust
 

I need a lawyer to handle transferring my property into a trust. The trust is already drawn up but I thought having someone local to the Belknap Registry of Deeds would be cheaper. I don't need the best real estate attorney nor their prices since its a routine transaction.

Anyone willing to recommend someone who may have done the same for you?

Thank you.

Ed Hibbard
 

Please contact Ed Hibbard of Wescott Law in Laconia. He's very good. Ed can be reached at (603) 524-2166.

You may not need a lawyer, try calling....
 

Paramount Settlement Services in Laconia. They are handling my purchasing of the family held property and they are titling it into my Trust. This is a woman run business and they know their stuff!

Lawyers Settlement Services in Meredith.....second floor of Citizen's Bank....was terrific for us. Call Donna Cohen there.....(603) 279-6100. They can handle anything. Very reasonable prices and prompt service.

If you have owners title insurance contact the company. They will need to issue a new certificate of insurance that reflects the trust as the property owner. There may be a modest fee but no need do redo the title search.

Paramount Settlement
 

I highly recommend Wanda, the owner of Paramount. I have had her handle three transactions for me. She and her staff do an excellent job, they are extremely knowledgeable and very responsive to questions and concerns.

Wanda at Paramount Settlement Services
 

Ditto on Wanda at Paramount. She handled a very complex, pre-foreclosure purchase negotiation for me in Meredith. VERY sharp, thinks outside the box, instant response to my emails and phone calls. She is a one-stop-shop, does everything or has friend who can handle specific outside stuff. And she is a nice person.

What are the advantages of titling the property to a trust?

Well you have to go back to the advantages of having all of your assets in a revocable trust. You can do a search for that.

At the top of the list for many, as part of an estate plan it will avoid probate court. At death the then irrevocable trust owns all the assets which are distributed by the successor trustee(s) according to the instructions in the trust. All in private with no meddling by probate court.

If you have a large estate over the exemption limit, now $5.43 M, there would be tax advantages for married couples.

Thanks
 

Thanks for the recommendation on Wescott Law, they are taking care of it.

Another feature I liked with a trust is the ability to stagger inheritances. I can dictate, even when I'm not here, how much my kids get and how old they need to be to get each part. Not really a concern when I'm 80 (they can have it all at once) but since many of us are worth more dead than alive, I protecting my kids from their respective ages and immaturity should something happen to my wife and I over the next 10 years.

I've put almost all my assets in a revokable trust. No brainer. Do it if only for bypassing probate. Your beneficeries will thank you.

can you put property that you have a note on in a trust, or more than likely have to go the note holder to see if they would allow it?

Absolutely. You and any other named trustees become responsible for the note. For example, you and your wife are trustees, you pass, the trustee, she, is responsible. There is no probate. The home remains in the name of the trust.
And yes, the bank has to approve. we have done this several times with no issues or restrictions from the banks.

I have a trust...
 

We just redid our line of credit, which was at the end of the 10 year life, and got a new home equity loan.

Everything we own is in the name of the trust, and has been since 2001. We did have to furnish a copy of the trust. I had more of a problem with the bank taking my retirement as income. They wanted proof that my retirement was guaranteed for at least 3 years from now.

Trusts are very common today, and every once in a while we run into a problem. Toyota Financial didn't want to give us a loan on my Corolla, so we told the dealer to pound sand and that we would get a loan, and different car somewhere else.

An hour and a half later, and two faxes of our trust agreement, we had our loan. Funny side note. They would not take our PO Box as an address and insisted on a street address. We gave them the street address, waited one week, and called customer service. Told them we weren't getting any mail from Toyota because we do not get mail at our house. The CSR took our PO Box, made the change, and we had no problems for the life of the loan, just paid off this past year.

We must have been the only Toyota Financial customer that had a PO Box. :laugh:

I see I'm not the only one with this problem, it is amazing the number of people that insist on "physical address", when there is no mail delivery there, can't convince them, I usually go elsewhere.

We have all of our property in trusts, recently took out a home equity line of credit and get all our mail at a PO Box (at the expansive Alton Bay PO).

No problem getting the line of credit through BNH on our Welch Island property which is owned by our trusts. May use it as a bridge loan as we plan to buy & sell locally. The bank attorney did want to see copies of the trusts to make sure that we as trustees had the authority to buy/sell/mortgage real estate. BNH had no problem with the PO Box mailing address.

However like UP we ran into an issue with Toyota Financial Services (TFS) relative to physical address. We recently helped a granddaughter get an auto loan from TFS by having my wife co sign. They wanted proof of where the kid lived even though her license listed her home address. They wanted to nail down the physical address. When I asked why: simple answer they wanted to know where to send the tow truck if the loan was defaulted on. So UP while we know that you would never default, TFS is ready just in case.:D