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Schedule a Free ConsultationTrust Funding and Prop 19 Planning Lawyer in Los Angeles, CA, Helping Your Trust Work the Way You Intended
A living trust only works if it actually holds your assets. A Los Angeles trust funding attorney at Chaney Counsel helps you close that gap, whether you're finishing the funding process on a trust you already have, or thinking ahead about what happens to your property under California's Prop 19 rules once it eventually passes to your children. Both trust funding concerns come up constantly, and both connect directly to the rest of your estate plan.
Whether your priority is getting every asset you own properly retitled into your trust or specifically understanding what Prop 19 means for a piece of real estate, you'll find real answers to both below.
Attorney Lindsey Chaney will walk through your specific assets with you, addressing real property, accounts, and everything in between, rather than handing you a generic checklist and hoping you fill in the blanks correctly. Getting started begins with a free consultation, and we will discuss pricing upfront, often on a flat-fee basis, before you decide how to move forward.
Ready to Protect What Matters Most? Let’s Start the Conversation.
Every family’s situation is different. Talk with our team about your goals, and we will walk you through the options, the process, and what it costs before you commit to anything.
Funding Your Trust Is What Makes It Work
Creating a trust document is only the first step. "Funding" your living trust generally means transferring ownership of appropriate assets, such as real property and certain bank or investment accounts, to the trustee. Other assets, including retirement accounts and life insurance, may remain outside the trust during your lifetime and instead be coordinated with the estate plan through beneficiary designations.
Different assets get funded in different ways:
- Real property is retitled through a new deed.
- Bank and investment accounts are typically retitled by working directly with your bank or brokerage to change the account into the trust's name, or by updating a payable-on-death or transfer-on-death designation to point to your trust instead.
- Retirement accounts usually stay in your own name, with their beneficiary designation updated to name your trust or your individual beneficiaries directly, since moving a retirement account itself into a trust can trigger unwanted tax consequences.
- Life insurance policies and other accounts with their own beneficiary forms work the same way as retirement accounts.
Assets intended to be owned by the trust generally remain individually owned until they are properly transferred to the trustee. Assets that pass through beneficiary designations remain outside the trust during your lifetime and transfer according to those designations at death.
An unfunded trust doesn't fail quietly. An asset left outside the trust may still pass without probate if another valid transfer mechanism applies, such as a beneficiary designation or survivorship right. But property that remains individually owned without another nonprobate transfer arrangement may have to pass through probate or another estate administration procedure. A pour-over will can direct qualifying probate assets into your trust afterward, but those assets may first have to pass through probate or another applicable estate administration procedure.
Real Property Can Fund Your Trust, but Retitling It Involves Recording a New Deed
Real estate usually carries more weight, financially and emotionally, than any other asset in your estate, and it's often the piece people are most anxious to get right. Unlike a bank account, where funding your trust might mean a simple form at your bank, moving real property into your trust means preparing and recording a new deed that transfers title from you individually into your name as trustee of your trust, along with a Preliminary Change of Ownership Report filed with the county recorder at the same time.
Because this step involves recording a new deed and reporting the transfer to the county, many homeowners understandably worry about whether it will trigger a property tax reassessment. Whether reassessment occurs depends on whether the transfer constitutes a change in ownership under California property tax law.
Retitling Your Own Home Into Your Own Trust Doesn't Raise Your Property Taxes
This is one of the most common worries we hear, and the good news is straightforward: transferring your home into a revocable living trust that you created, where you remain the trustee and the present beneficiary, does not trigger a property tax reassessment under California law. Your existing assessed value carries forward exactly as it was.
This exclusion exists separately from Prop 19, a California ballot measure that took effect in 2021 and changed how property gets reassessed for tax purposes when it passes between generations. In plain terms, "reassessment" means the county resets a property's taxable value to its current market value, which usually means a significantly higher tax bill than what you've been paying. The Prop 19 exclusion, where it applies, lets your child step into your existing lower taxable value instead of starting over at today's market value.
Proposition 19 Changed the Rules, but a Prop 19 Planning Lawyer in Los Angeles, CA, Can Help You Plan Around Them
Prop 19 significantly narrowed the rules that used to let parents pass a home to their children without much limitation. To qualify, the home generally must have been the parent’s principal residence, and an eligible child must make it their own principal residence within one year of the transfer. Timely filing of the required Homeowners’ Exemption and intergenerational-transfer claim is also important to obtain the full available exclusion.
This requirement doesn't end once your child moves in and files the paperwork. The exclusion depends on the home continuing to serve as your child's primary residence going forward, not just on that first year. If your child later moves out and the property becomes a rental or a vacation home, the exclusion ends at that point, and the home is reassessed to its market value as of the following year, not retroactively back to the original transfer. If more than one child inherited the property together, the exclusion can continue if another sibling moves in within a year of the first one moving out.
Even when a child meets those requirements, the exclusion isn't unlimited. The protected value is the home's existing assessed value plus an amount the state adjusts every two years, currently just over $1 million. Value above that combined figure gets added to the tax base, so part of the home may still see a real increase even when the exclusion applies.
A Prop 19 planning lawyer in Los Angeles, CA, can look at options like how your property is titled, when a transfer happens, and whether your family might qualify for a different exclusion entirely, so your family is not caught off guard by a bigger tax bill than the rules actually require.
Determining Whether the Prop 19 Exclusion Applies Depends on Your Specific Situation
The core rule above covers the typical case, but a few common situations change the answer entirely. The type of property involved, who's inheriting it, and even where it's located can all affect whether the Prop 19 exclusion would apply to your family's situation at all. It's worth checking your situation against these before assuming either way.
Rental and Vacation Properties Don't Get the Prop 19 Exclusion at All
If the property wasn't your primary residence to begin with, such as a rental, vacation home, or other investment property, it won't qualify for the Prop 19 exclusion, no matter what your child does with it afterward. And even if the property was your primary residence, the exclusion still depends on your child making it their own primary residence within a year of the transfer. If they choose to rent it out instead, that exclusion doesn't apply, either.
In either of these situations, the property gets reassessed to full market value once ownership changes.
If part of your estate includes property like this, that's exactly the kind of detail a Los Angeles trust funding attorney should walk through with you directly, since the planning approach for a rental property looks nothing like the approach for your primary residence.
A Narrower Exclusion Exists for Grandparents Under Prop 19
Grandparent-to-grandchild transfers can also qualify for a version of this exclusion, but the requirement is more specific than most families expect. A grandparent-to-grandchild transfer may qualify only if the applicable ‘middle generation’ requirement is satisfied. Generally, the parents of the grandchild who qualify as children of the transferring grandparent must be deceased as of the date of the transfer, subject to limited statutory exceptions. Outside of that specific circumstance, a transfer of real property from grandparent to grandchild directly generally does not qualify for an exclusion under Prop 19.
This kind of detail is easy to get wrong without careful review, and getting it wrong can mean missing an exclusion your family actually qualifies for. Our estate planning law firm can help you determine whether your family's specific situation fits this exception before you plan around it.
Property Outside California Isn't Covered by Prop 19 at All
If your trust holds real property in another state, Prop 19 and California's assessor rules don't apply to it at all. That property is governed by whatever rules the state where it's located has in place, which may be more or less favorable than California's.
A Prop 19 planning lawyer in Los Angeles, CA, can help you understand what applies to your California property specifically and figure out the right path forward.
Once you know how these rules would apply to your family, the next question is making sure your child doesn't lose an exclusion they'd otherwise qualify for over a missed technicality. That comes down to deadlines.
Filing Deadlines Matter for Prop 19 Exclusions
The claim for a Prop 19 parent-child exclusion is generally considered timely if it is filed with the county assessor within three years of the transfer or before the property is transferred to a third party, whichever comes first, subject to additional statutory filing rules.
A late filing may prevent your family from receiving the exclusion for earlier tax years, even if prospective relief is still available. Working with a Prop 19 planning lawyer in Los Angeles, CA, can help you keep this filing from slipping through the cracks during an already busy time.
Prop 19 Exclusions When More Than One Child Inherits the Family Home
If more than one child inherits a qualifying family home, not every child necessarily has to live there for the Prop 19 exclusion to apply. Generally, if at least one eligible child makes the property their principal residence and satisfies the applicable filing requirements, the exclusion may apply to the transferred property if the other requirements are met.
Additional property-tax consequences can arise later if the children transfer ownership interests among themselves, sell the property, or the home stops being the principal residence of an eligible transferee. Those later transactions should be reviewed separately rather than assuming the original parent-child exclusion will continue unchanged.
This is exactly the kind of outcome that's worth planning for in advance rather than discovering after the fact. How your trust is drafted and how you talk to your children about your intentions can make a real difference here.
Planning Ahead for Prop 19 Rules Beats Reacting After the Fact
Many of the families we talk to about Prop 19 are trying to plan proactively, thinking through how their property will pass to their children years before it actually happens. That's exactly the right instinct.
Once a transfer has already occurred, the filing deadlines and eligibility requirements are largely fixed, and there's much less room to change the outcome. Working through these questions with a Los Angeles trust funding attorney while you're still deciding how to structure your trust gives your family far more flexibility than trying to sort it out after the fact.
Funding Your Trust Goes Beyond Real Property
Real property and financial accounts tend to get the most attention, but a trust is only as complete as everything you've actually retitled into it.
If you own an interest in a business, whether that's a partnership, an LLC, or shares in a closely held corporation, that ownership typically needs to be formally assigned into your trust. Often, this is done through a separate assignment document rather than the deed or account paperwork used for other assets.
Personal property of real value, such as art, jewelry, collectibles, or family heirlooms you want handled a specific way, sometimes needs its own attention, too. How to approach this may depend on how your trust is drafted and whether you want to spell out who receives specific items.
Missing one of these forms of assets isn't usually as visible as an unfunded piece of real estate, but the result is the same: that asset may not end up where you intended, and it may still have to pass through probate to get there.
Ongoing Estate Planning Support to Help You Fund Your Trust With New Assets Over Time
Trust funding isn't a one-time task you finish and forget. A new bank account, a refinanced property, or a piece of real estate you acquire years after your trust was created may all need to be retitled, too, and it's easy for something to slip through unnoticed. A Los Angeles trust funding attorney can help you catch those gaps before they become your family's problem to sort out later.
Why Choose Chaney Counsel as Your Trust Funding and Prop 19 Planning Lawyer in Los Angeles?
Property tax rules and trust funding can feel like a maze of paperwork. Here's how we make it more manageable at Chaney Counsel.
Your Plan Reflects Your Actual Assets, Not a Generic Checklist
Every family's mix of real property, accounts, and other assets is different. We walk through what you actually own, not a one-size-fits-all list, so nothing important gets missed.
You'll Know What This Costs Before We Start
We provide transparent pricing information before any estate planning work begins, laying out exactly what's included and what it will cost, so there are no surprises partway through.
We Help You Fund Your Trust With New Assets as You Acquire Them
Funding doesn't end when your trust is signed. We're available to help you retitle new property or accounts as your life changes, so your trust stays complete over time.
Your First Conversation Is Free, No Strings Attached
A free consultation lets you ask questions and understand your options before deciding how to move forward.
Contact Chaney Counsel Today for Your Free Consultation With a Los Angeles Trust Funding Attorney
Whether your trust needs to be fully funded or you're thinking ahead about what Prop 19 means for your family, a Los Angeles trust funding attorney at Chaney Counsel can help you sort out exactly where you stand. Schedule a free consultation, and let's talk through your specific assets and what they need. Call 818-600-7031 or fill out our online contact form to get in touch today.