Armory Sponsor
Posted: 11/21/2008 6:48:30 AM EDT
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I have a trust with my brother. There are successor trustees on this trust. How can I add members to the trust so they can use the firearms without me there (future wife, trusted friend, etc).
Can the successor trustees change after the stamp is received? Can successor trustees use the firearms without me present? If the trust can be changed, then I assume the one thing that has to remain the same is the two main trustees (my brother and myself). Does the ATF keep the original trust on file, or can I just change the trust and get the new one notarized again, or do changes come in the form of amendments? Thanks. |
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The issue is that I can't find anywhere in the NFA documentation that states what persons in a trust are allowed to have access to the firearm.
I did my trust with my brother. We are both the Grantors and the Trustees. One of my close friends is the Successor Trustee. The actual trust states: E. Successor Trustee Upon the death or incapacity of the surviving trustee, of the incapacity of both trustees, John Doe shall serve as trustee. If John Doe is unable or unwilling to serve as successor trustee, Don Juan shall serve as successor trustee. I am able to add trustees, but I need to know if successor trustees are allowed to possess these firearms without me being present... I also need to know how many grantor/trustees there can be in a trust. Quicken limits me to two... I don't see how this is a "Trust" issue. This seems like it would be an ATF issue. I will look into trusts further... Edit: Taken from Wiki: Trustees The trustee can be either a person or a legal entity such as a company. A trust may have one or multiple trustees. A trustee has many rights and responsibilities; these vary from trust to trust depending on the type of the trust. A trust generally will not fail solely for want of a trustee. A court may appoint a trustee, or in Ireland the trustee may be any administrator of a charity to which the trust is related. Trustees are usually appointed in the document (instrument) which creates the trust. The software does not allow me to have more than two, however. |
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Quoted:
The issue is that I can't find anywhere in the NFA documentation that states what persons in a trust are allowed to have access to the firearm. I did my trust with my brother. We are both the Grantors and the Trustees. One of my close friends is the Successor Trustee. The actual trust states: E. Successor Trustee Upon the death or incapacity of the surviving trustee, of the incapacity of both trustees, John Doe shall serve as trustee. If John Doe is unable or unwilling to serve as successor trustee, Don Juan shall serve as successor trustee. I am able to add trustees, but I need to know if successor trustees are allowed to possess these firearms without me being present... I also need to know how many grantor/trustees there can be in a trust. Quicken limits me to two... I don't see how this is a "Trust" issue. This seems like it would be an ATF issue. I will look into trusts further... Edit: Taken from Wiki: Trustees The trustee can be either a person or a legal entity such as a company. A trust may have one or multiple trustees. A trustee has many rights and responsibilities; these vary from trust to trust depending on the type of the trust. A trust generally will not fail solely for want of a trustee. A court may appoint a trustee, or in Ireland the trustee may be any administrator of a charity to which the trust is related. Trustees are usually appointed in the document (instrument) which creates the trust. The software does not allow me to have more than two, however. You've got a whole bunch of questions all stuffed together, and it is really impossible to answer them specifically without seeing your exact trust, but let me try helping in a general sense. The owner of your NFA firearms in this case is your trust. Your trust, in and of itself, it a legal entity capable of owning property. The trustees are the people authorized to act on behalf of the trust. The trustees are the only people allowed to legally be in possession of your trust's NFA firearms. "Successor trustee" is not a legal term per se, but is a role defined by the trusts generated by the Quicken software. These are the people who will take over as trustees if the current trustees are incapacitated. Successor trustees have no right whatsoever to act on behalf of the trust. They cannot legally be in possession of the trust's NFA firearms. In general, trusts are a tremendously flexible legal concept that can be used for all sorts of purposes. Quicken can only generate a small number of very limited trusts. You will not be able to use Quicken to add more trustees to your trust, because the Quicken software was not designed to do that. As far as the legal requirements to add trustees, you need to read what your trust itself says. Your trust is the document that controls how you add trustees. Normally you would execute an amendment, but it all boils down to your trust. Bottom line, if you want to start doing anything other than the bare basics with your trust, then Quicken is not the product for you. You will either need to write the amendments yourself, or hire an attorney to do it for you. And based on the questions you are asking, I think hiring an attorney is the best option. P.S. - I agree with almega above - as soon as you want to start doing fancy things, you are probably better off with a LLC. But since your trust already exists, you would be looking at paying the $200 per item transfer tax again to change ownership to a corp. |
Armory Sponsor