To start a trust account, you pick the type of trust that fits your goals, draft and sign a trust agreement, get an EIN from the IRS if the trust needs its own tax ID, retitle your assets into the trust’s name, and then open a dedicated bank account in the trust’s name at a financial institution. A simple revocable trust can be up and running in a few days; a more complex irrevocable trust with multiple asset types takes several weeks. Most of the time and money goes into two places: getting the trust document right and moving your assets into it afterward.
Choose Between a Revocable and an Irrevocable Trust
This decision comes first because it changes almost everything else, including whether you need a separate tax ID and how the bank will treat the account.
A revocable trust, often called a living trust, keeps you in control. You can change the terms, swap beneficiaries, add or remove assets, or dissolve it entirely while you’re alive. The IRS treats the income as yours and you report it on your personal return using your Social Security number. Because you haven’t truly given anything up, creditors can still reach assets inside a revocable trust. The main practical payoff is probate avoidance: assets properly titled in the trust pass directly to your beneficiaries when you die.
An irrevocable trust works differently. Once you transfer assets in, you generally cannot pull them back or change the terms without the beneficiaries’ consent or a court order. The trust becomes a separate legal entity with its own tax ID. Because you’ve genuinely given up ownership, those assets are typically excluded from your taxable estate and shielded from your personal creditors. This structure is common for larger estates, specific tax planning goals, or protection from future lawsuits or long-term care costs.
One detail worth knowing up front: a revocable trust automatically becomes irrevocable when the grantor dies. At that point it needs its own EIN, and the successor trustee takes over under terms that can no longer be changed.
Name the Grantor, Trustee, and Beneficiaries
Every trust has three roles, and the same person can fill more than one.
- The grantor (also called the settlor) creates the trust, sets the rules, and provides the assets. With a revocable trust, the grantor often serves as their own trustee during their lifetime.
- The trustee manages the assets and follows the instructions in the trust document. A trustee has a fiduciary duty: they must put the beneficiaries’ interests ahead of their own, invest prudently, keep accurate records, and avoid self-dealing.
- The beneficiaries are the people or organizations who receive the trust’s assets or income on the schedule the document specifies.
Name a successor trustee in the document as well. If you’re your own trustee on a revocable trust, the successor takes over when you become incapacitated or die. Without one, a court may need to appoint someone, which undoes much of the reason for having a trust.
A professional or corporate trustee, such as a bank trust department, typically charges an annual fee somewhere between 0.25% and 2% of the trust’s assets. That cost makes sense for large or complex trusts; for a straightforward family trust, most people name a trusted family member or friend.
Draft the Trust Agreement
The trust agreement is the legal document that brings the trust into existence. It should cover the essentials clearly:
- The trust name, typically your name plus the date the trust was created (for example, “The Jane Smith Revocable Trust dated March 15, 2026”). This exact name will appear on every retitled asset, so pick it carefully.
- Participant details: full legal names and current addresses for the grantor, trustee, successor trustee, and all beneficiaries.
- A description of the assets going into the trust. Many agreements use a separate schedule that can be updated without rewriting the whole document.
- Distribution instructions that spell out when and how beneficiaries receive assets. You can specify lump sums at certain ages, ongoing income, or discretionary distributions for purposes like education or healthcare.
- The trustee’s powers, such as buying and selling investments, managing real estate, or hiring professionals.
Online legal services charge roughly $100 to $500 for template-based revocable trust documents. An estate planning attorney typically charges $1,500 to $3,000 as a flat fee for a simple trust, and $3,000 to $7,000 or more for complex arrangements involving business interests, blended families, or tax planning provisions. The attorney route costs more, but the advice is tailored to your assets and family, not a filled-in template.
The trust agreement has to be in writing and signed by the grantor. Most financial institutions expect it to be notarized even if your state doesn’t strictly require it, so get the notarization done up front. It saves friction later when you try to open accounts or transfer property.
Get an EIN From the IRS (If You Need One)
Whether the trust needs its own Employer Identification Number depends on the type of trust.
A revocable trust where the grantor is also the trustee does not need a separate EIN during the grantor’s lifetime. It uses the grantor’s Social Security number, and the income flows through to the grantor’s personal return. An irrevocable trust needs its own EIN from the start because it’s a separate taxpayer.
The fastest route is the IRS online EIN application, which is free and issues the number immediately. You can also file Form SS-4 by fax (about four business days) or by mail (about four weeks).1Internal Revenue Service. Employer Identification Number Save the confirmation letter; banks and brokerage firms will ask for it when you open the account.
You also need a new EIN any time a trust’s tax status changes, most commonly when a revocable trust becomes irrevocable after the grantor dies.2Internal Revenue Service. When to Get a New EIN If a trust earns income without a valid taxpayer ID on file, the bank is required to withhold at a flat 24% rate on that income.3Internal Revenue Service. Backup Withholding
Fund the Trust by Retitling Your Assets
A signed trust agreement with no assets in it is just paper. Funding is the step most people underestimate, and skipping it creates exactly the problems the trust was supposed to prevent. Each asset type has its own transfer process.
Real Estate
Transferring real property means signing a new deed, usually a quitclaim or grant deed depending on your state, that changes ownership from your name to the trust’s name. The deed must be notarized and recorded with the county recorder’s office. The name on the deed must match the trust name exactly, date and all; a missing middle initial or misspelled name can trigger a rejection at recording or create title problems later.
Transferring your own property into your own revocable trust generally does not trigger transfer taxes, because ownership hasn’t meaningfully changed. If there’s a mortgage on the property, check with the lender before recording the deed. Most lenders won’t enforce a due-on-sale clause on transfers into a revocable trust where you remain the beneficiary, but confirm rather than assume.
Bank and Brokerage Accounts
Some banks will retitle an existing account into the trust’s name. Others require you to open a new account in the trust’s name and move the funds over. Bring the trust agreement (or a certificate of trust) and your ID either way.
Brokerage and investment accounts work similarly. You complete a transfer instruction form with the existing firm or a new one, and the account gets retitled into the trust’s name. Provide the account information exactly as it appears on your current statements to avoid delays.4Investor.gov. Transferring Your Brokerage Account Ask about transfer fees at both ends before starting.
Life Insurance and Retirement Accounts
Life insurance policies and retirement accounts such as IRAs and 401(k)s don’t get retitled. Instead, you name the trust as the beneficiary on the beneficiary designation form through the insurance company or plan administrator. The form itself is simple, but the tax consequences are not. Naming a trust as beneficiary of a retirement account can change the required distribution timeline and potentially accelerate the tax bill for your beneficiaries. Talk to a tax advisor before doing this with a retirement account.
Open the Trust Account at a Bank
Once the trust agreement is signed and you have the EIN (or your SSN for a grantor-trustee revocable trust), you can open the dedicated trust bank account. This is where liquid assets sit and where income from trust property gets deposited.
Most banks accept a certificate of trust instead of the full trust agreement. A certificate of trust is a shortened version, usually two or three pages, confirming the trust exists, naming the trustee, stating the trustee’s powers, and providing the trust’s tax ID. It lets you prove your authority without handing over sensitive details like who gets what and when. If an attorney drafted your trust, they can prepare this document.
Bring the following to the bank:
- The certificate of trust, or the full trust agreement if the bank requires it.
- The EIN confirmation letter, or your Social Security number for a revocable trust using your SSN.
- Government-issued photo ID for every person who will have signing authority on the account.
The bank will have the trustee sign signature cards establishing who can write checks, authorize wire transfers, and otherwise manage the funds. Some banks route trust account applications through their legal department for review, which can add a few business days. Once approved, you get account details and routing numbers, and the account is active as soon as the initial deposit clears. From then on, the trustee manages it according to the terms of the trust agreement.
Plan for the Taxes You’ll Owe
If the trust is revocable and you’re the grantor, nothing new gets filed. Trust income goes on your personal Form 1040 under your Social Security number.
An irrevocable trust, or a formerly revocable trust after the grantor’s death, is a separate taxpayer. It must file Form 1041, the U.S. Income Tax Return for Estates and Trusts, for any year it has gross income of $600 or more.5IRS.gov. 2025 Instructions for Form 1041 and Schedules A, B, G, J, and K-1 That threshold is low enough that virtually any trust holding interest-bearing accounts or investments will need to file.
When the trust distributes income to beneficiaries, the trustee issues a Schedule K-1 to each beneficiary showing their share of income, deductions, and credits. Beneficiaries then report those amounts on their own returns.6Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Schedule K-1 (Form 1041) for a Beneficiary Filing Form 1040 or 1040-SR Income kept inside the trust is taxed at trust rates, which reach the top bracket at a much lower income level than individual rates.
Add a Pour-Over Will as a Backup
Even with careful funding, some assets may get left out. You might buy a car and forget to title it in the trust, or receive an inheritance you never got around to transferring. A pour-over will catches these stragglers by directing that anything still in your individual name at death goes into the trust, where it’s distributed under the trust’s terms instead of the state’s default intestacy rules.
The catch is that assets flowing through a pour-over will still go through probate, since they weren’t in the trust while you were alive. The pour-over will is a backup, not a substitute for funding the trust properly in the first place.
A Note on Creditor Protection
People sometimes assume any trust shields assets from creditors. That’s only half true. A revocable trust offers essentially no creditor protection during the grantor’s lifetime, because you can pull the assets back at any time and courts treat them as still yours. Real creditor protection requires an irrevocable trust, usually with a spendthrift provision, and even that has carve-outs for child support, spousal support, and federal tax liens. If creditor protection is a primary goal, say so at the drafting stage so the attorney can build the trust around it.