People were saying that because those are terms more typically found in a will rather than a trust. But whether it's a will or a trust, there should be provisions for what is done with any assets not specifically enumerated. Otherwise, people would have to update their will or trust every time they acquired a new asset.The trust divides assets the way John and Mary want to. It's not my business to tell them how to split things up. The trust specifies which asset goes to which beneficiary, and they want the savings to go to one child and the brokerage to go to another.
For the other posters who said that this is a will, it's not. It's a Revocable Living Trust
But as others have said, the asset has to be owned by the trust for the trust to have control over what's done. It does no good for the trust to say Savings Account 1234 at Podunk Bank & Trust goes to child A if the trust does not own that account. If said account, enumerated that way, was owner by John and Mary in their own name, my experience says that even with a pour-over will, the account will not survive the transfer process (rather, the money in the account will be transferred to a new account in the name of the trust with a new account number; when my MIL died, all her RLT accounts (never mind anything in her own name) transferred to new accounts since the trust was now irrevocable with its own EIN).
I realize you said "The trust divides assets the way John and Mary want to" but what John and Mary need to understand is that what actually happens might be very different from what they want due to them not understanding what will actually happen. While the successor trustee can probably do what everyone knows John and Mary wanted provided all agree, all it takes is one beneficiary not to agree and demand that the trust be distributed exactly as written to derail that.
Statistics: Posted by lstone19 — Sun Jan 21, 2024 11:39 pm — Replies 25 — Views 859