Free Irrevocable Trust Template

Irrevocable trusts are useful legacy planning tools that let you transfer assets while accessing specific benefits, such as tax savings, asset protection, or charitable contributions.

Depending on your personal goals and financial situation, different types of irrevocable trusts can help you achieve these objectives. Below are some of the most common types of irrevocable trusts, each serving a unique purpose:

• Charitable trust: Benefits charitable organizations while providing tax deductions.
• Medicaid trust: Protects assets for Medicaid eligibility by transferring ownership.
• Qualified personal residence trust (QPRT): Allows transfer of a personal residence, reducing estate taxes.
• Asset protection trust: Shields assets from creditors and lawsuits.
• Grantor-retained annuity trust (GRAT): Transfers assets to beneficiaries but lets the grantor receive regular payments from the trust for a set period.
• Irrevocable life insurance trusts (ILIT): Holds life insurance policies outside of the taxable estate.

Writing a legally sound irrevocable trust form without an attorney can be relatively simple, especially when you use Legal Templates’s form to help you through the process. Below, we explore the steps in writing an irrevocable trust form so you can take certain assets out of your taxable estate and set up your beneficiaries for financial success.

1. Enter Grantor Information

Begin by entering your information as the grantor, including your name and address. You’ll want to specify whether you’re the sole grantor or if you’ll have someone else as a co-grantor. When you use our template, you can choose whether the grantor is just you, a married couple, or an unmarried couple.

This distinction helps when it comes to joint estate planning. For example, a married couple or business partners may transfer assets into one trust to achieve shared goals, like asset protection or tax reduction. Family members may also want to pool their assets to help secure future generations’ finances.

2. Describe the Trust’s Purpose

Irrevocable living trusts can have different purposes depending on your situation, so be sure to clearly state yours. You can choose from pre-written options in our template for simplicity, such as managing the grantor’s assets or distributing the assets upon the grantor’s death. If you want to be more specific, you can write in your own purpose with more details.

3. Name the Trustee

Name someone you trust to watch out for the beneficiaries’ best interests as your trustee. While you can name yourself, you may lose some of the tax advantages that come with an irrevocable trust.

List all the powers the trustee will have and note any exclusions. If you aren’t sure which powers to award or limit, you can look through our template for pre-written options, like selling the property in the trust or exercising stock voting rights. These powers are common for trustees to have, but you can choose to award them all or narrow them down to meet your needs.

When sorting the trustee’s details, you can also record whether they will receive compensation. It can be a pre-set amount, or it can be a “reasonable” amount based on the degree of management work they do before the trust’s assets go to the beneficiaries.

4. List the Trust’s Property

All of your property likely won’t go into an irrevocable trust, so it’s essential you specify which assets you’re giving up. This way, you can maintain a clear distinction between your taxable estate and the assets that go into your trust for beneficiaries’ future use.

5. Designate Beneficiaries

Name general beneficiaries, who are the parties that will receive the assets in your irrevocable trust. If you have more than one beneficiary, designate the percentage of the trust each will receive.

Note that they may not receive all assets, as you can choose to gift some to other parties.

6. Make Specific Gifts

Gift designations are separate from your beneficiaries. If you want a specific organization or cause to get an asset from your irrevocable trust, you can name the entity and describe the item it will get. If you have pets, you can also decide that a certain dollar amount will go toward their care.

7. Account for Children

If you have children, you can account for them in our template. Select that you have children and declare you will include a subtrust for them if desired. A subtrust receives funding from the main trust, and the assets only go to the children when they reach a certain age or milestone, like turning 30 or graduating from college.

8. Sign & Notarize

Once you’ve filled out all the requested information, you can review your document for accuracy. As the grantor, you must sign the form before a notary public, as notarization is often mandatory for this document. Check your state’s laws for clarity on the requirements to ensure your document is enforceable.

Legal Templates makes it easy to create a comprehensive irrevocable trust. Secure your loved ones’ financial future by confidently creating this set-in-stone document. Our dynamic builder guides you through the process, leaving no aspect of your trust unaddressed. Once you create an account with us, you can enter your information, save it, and return again to continue filling it out.

When you’re done, you can save it as a PDF or Word document and print it out. For enforceability, be sure to wait to sign until you’re in front of a notary public.

Below is an example of an irrevocable trust form. When you become familiar with all its parts, you can use our irrevocable trust template to fill yours out yourself.