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Through the course of establishing and maintaining a revocable living trust estate plan, it is common for the trust creator(s) to see the need of modifying the original plan, after it was first established, often several times. Changes to revocable living trusts can be accomplished by amendments, of course, but there is a better, more efficient way – that being implementing the changes as a "restatement(s) of trust." A restatement of trust is essentially an all-encompassing amendment to the original trust. It is accomplished by creating a living trust plan using the original date that it was first established. The sole purpose of restating an existing trust needing modifications (without using an amendment) is to avoid the (re)funding-of-the-trust process otherwise required if the old trust were scraped, the assets removed, and a new trust established in its place. Therefore, restating an existing trust is essentially the process of creating a "new" trust but with using the original date – when the trust was first signed – as the restatement of trust date thus avoiding the (re)funding process. | |