Asset TOD to living trust?

[Carl Hansen]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA

I want to include a brokerage account in the list of assets in a living trust. The brokerage will not change registration to John Doe, trustee of John Doe Living Trust, but it will add a Transfer on Death designation to the account. Would leaving the registration as John Doe and adding a TOD to the trust have the same effect in delivering the asset as changing the registration to the preferred John Doe, trustee...

Yes, I could open a second account in the name of the trust, but I am trying to avoid that.

 

[curb1]

You said, "Yes, I could open a second account in the name of the trust, but I am trying to avoid that".

Why not, it would be very easy.

 

[Carl Hansen]

Interactive Brokers won't let you transfer securities between accounts unless the accounts have exactly the same registration so I'd have to sell everything and then fund a second account in the name of the trust. They will do a TOD so if that would work I wouldn't have to sell everything and take the tax consequences.

 

[curb1]

That is interesting. The occasions that I have done it at Charles Schwab and E*Trade it was not a problem. I did have to send a copy of the trust.

Another alternative would be to change brokerages and have a lateral transfer to the new account at a different brokerage.

I'm sorry, I can't answer the TOD question.

 

[TrustUser]

i had no problem in transferring my parents brokerage stuff at merrill lynch.

a tod should be okay as far as when you die.

the main difference between re-titling an asset to a trust as opposed to naming it in a tod is during the period that the owner is alive, but unable to conduct business.

if it is in trust, there is language to take care of the owner when he is not capable.

a tod does nothing in this regard.

a person would need a poa to be of any assistance, and poas are not always liked by institutions.