TL;DR Summary
A living trust only controls the assets titled in its name, and it only works through the people it names. Years of refinances, new accounts, aging trustees and tax-law changes can leave a signed trust doing something very different from what you intended. A living trust review checks five things: whether the trust is funded, whether your successor trustee can still serve, whether distribution ages and protections still fit your heirs, whether the trust matches current federal and Minnesota estate tax law, and how it holds up under a short list of what-ifs. For 2026 deaths, the federal estate tax exclusion is $15,000,000 per person, while Minnesota’s stays at $3,000,000 with no portability between spouses, a gap where many older Minnesota trusts misfire. Bring what you find to your estate planning attorney.
About the Author
Nathan Krampe, CFP®, CPWA®, is the founder and Chief Investment Strategist of Lion’s Wealth Management, a fee-based fiduciary wealth management firm in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. He works with business owners, executives and families approaching or in retirement, coordinating investment, tax and estate planning decisions alongside each family’s attorney and CPA.
A couple in their fifties signs a revocable living trust. They name his brother as the backup trustee and leave everything to their children outright at age 25. The binder goes on a shelf.
Fifteen years later, they’ve refinanced the house, and the new deed went back into their own names. They moved their savings to a new bank, and the new accounts were opened in their individual names. The brother is now eighty. Nothing in the binder changed, but nearly everything around it did. (This couple is a hypothetical, not a client.)
That’s how most trusts stop working. There’s rarely a dramatic error, just one ordinary life change at a time. A living trust review catches these gaps while the person who signed the trust can still fix them. This guide walks through the five checks in our Trust Review Checklist, the three mistakes that come up most often, and how to bring your findings to your estate planning attorney.
What Is a Living Trust Review?
A living trust review is a structured read-through of your revocable trust against your life as it is today. It confirms that assets are titled in the trust’s name, that beneficiary forms agree with the trust, that the successor trustee can still serve, that distribution terms still fit your heirs, and that the plan matches current federal and state estate tax law. The goal is to find gaps while you can still fix them.
A few terms come up throughout this guide:
- Revocable living trust — a trust you create and control during your lifetime, which you can change or cancel, and which holds assets for your benefit before passing them to your beneficiaries.
- Probate — the court-supervised process for settling a deceased person’s estate when assets are in that person’s individual name with no beneficiary or surviving co-owner.
- Pour-over will — a will that directs any assets left outside your trust to be added to the trust after your death (Minn. Stat. §524.2-511, 2025).
- Successor trustee — the person or institution named to manage the trust when you can no longer serve, whether because of incapacity or death.
- Beneficiary designation — the form on file with a retirement plan, IRA custodian or life insurance company naming who receives that account at your death.
- Spendthrift provision — trust language that restricts a beneficiary’s ability to sell or pledge an interest in the trust and limits creditors’ ability to reach it (Minn. Stat. §501C.0502, 2025).
- Estate tax exclusion — the amount of property a person can pass at death before federal or state estate tax applies.
Why Signed Trusts Quietly Stop Working
A trust is a snapshot. It records your family, your assets, your tax law and your address on the day you signed it. Each of those keeps moving after the signing meeting ends, and the document doesn’t move with them.
These are the changes that most often pull a trust out of alignment:
- A refinance or new purchase that put the home back in your individual names
- New bank, brokerage or CD accounts opened outside the trust
- A new retirement account or life insurance policy whose beneficiary form never mentioned the trust
- A successor trustee who has aged, moved away, become ill or drifted from the family
- A child or grandchild who married, divorced, started a business or hit a hard stretch
- A move to another state, with different estate tax and trust law
- Federal or state estate tax changes, including the 2025 federal law that set a $15,000,000 exclusion for 2026 deaths (IRS, 2025)
- Your own divorce or remarriage
Any one of these can change what your trust actually does. Two or three together, over a decade or more, can turn a careful plan into a document that sends assets through probate, to the wrong person, or into a tax bill that planning could have reduced.
Check 1: Is Your Living Trust Actually Funded?
A revocable living trust controls only the assets titled in its name. If a deed or account statement shows your name alone, rather than your name as trustee of your trust, that asset sits outside the trust. Assets left outside generally reach the trust through a pour-over will, which usually means probate first (Minn. Stat. §524.2-511, 2025). Funding comes first because every other provision in the trust depends on it.
In Minnesota, the simplified affidavit process for collecting a deceased person’s personal property is available only when the entire probate estate is worth $75,000 or less, net of liens and encumbrances (Minn. Stat. §524.3-1201, 2025). For context, the median value of an owner-occupied home in Minnesota is $329,300 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2020–2024). A single house left outside the trust can carry an estate well past that limit on its own.
Retirement accounts and life insurance work differently. They stay in your name and pass by beneficiary form, not by the trust (IRS Publication 590-B, 2025). The trust and the forms have to agree, because when they don’t, the form controls the account.
How Common Assets Pass at Death
| Asset | How it passes | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Home and other real estate | By the owner named on the deed; through the trust only if titled to you as trustee | The current recorded deed names the trustee, especially after any refinance |
| Bank and brokerage accounts | By account title, or by a payable-on-death or transfer-on-death registration | Each statement's owner line reads "[Name], Trustee of the [Name] Trust" |
| IRAs, 401(k)s and 403(b)s | By the beneficiary designation on file with the plan or custodian | Primary and contingent beneficiaries match the plan in your trust |
| Life insurance | By the policy's beneficiary designation | Beneficiaries are current, and the trust is named if that is the design |
| Untitled personal property | By a written assignment to the trust, or under your will | An assignment exists and still reflects your wishes |
How to Check Your Trust's Funding
- Pull the most recent recorded deed for each property you own. The owner line should name you as trustee of your trust, not you individually.
- Gather a current statement for every bank, brokerage and CD account, and read the owner line on each.
- List every IRA, 401(k), 403(b), annuity and life insurance policy, and request a copy of the beneficiary designation on file for each.
- Compare each form with your trust’s distribution plan. Note any beneficiary who has died, who is a former spouse, or who no longer fits the plan.
- Mark every asset in your individual name with no beneficiary or transfer-on-death designation. Those are the assets most likely to need probate.
- Take the list to your estate planning attorney to retitle what belongs in the trust and confirm the forms.
A trust is only as complete as its titles and its forms.
Check 2: Is Your Successor Trustee Still the Right Person?
Many people serve as their own trustee, often alongside a spouse, and name a successor behind them. The successor’s job can be demanding: paying bills, managing investments, filing tax returns, keeping records and communicating with beneficiaries. The person you chose fifteen years ago may no longer be the right fit for that work.
Ask whether your named successor is still:
- Healthy enough to take on months or years of administrative work
- Close enough geographically, or comfortable handling the work remotely
- On good terms with your spouse, children and other beneficiaries
- Organized and comfortable with financial paperwork and deadlines
- Willing to serve, which you can confirm only by asking
- Backed by a named alternate in case your first choice can’t serve
How Does a Successor Trustee Take Over?
Read the trigger. Many trusts let a successor step in if you can no longer manage your own affairs, not only at death. Some spell out what proof is required, such as a letter from one or two physicians. Know what yours says, so your family isn’t guessing during a hospital stay.
If your trust names a bank or trust company as trustee or co-trustee, confirm that the institution still exists under the same name and still offers trust services. Mergers can change who actually shows up when the time comes.
The best trustee on paper is the one who can actually serve when it’s needed.
Check 3: Do Distribution Ages and Protections Still Fit Your Heirs?
Many trusts pay children or grandchildren outright at 21 or 25, because that felt right when the kids were six. People change. One child may be careful with money, while another may be going through a difficult stretch.
A single payout age isn’t the only option. A trust can stagger distributions, for example half at 25 and the rest at 35. It can keep assets in trust longer, with a trustee authorized to pay for education, a first home or health care. It can also hold a share in trust for life, with the beneficiary gaining more control over time.
Divorce, Creditors and Inheritances
Under Minnesota law, property a spouse acquires by inheritance is generally that spouse’s nonmarital property, not marital property to be divided in a divorce (Minn. Stat. §518.003, 2025). That protection depends on keeping the inheritance traceable. Once it is mixed into a joint account or used toward jointly owned property, separating it again can become difficult. A trust that holds an inheritance, rather than paying it out, can help keep it apart.
A spendthrift provision adds another layer. Under the Minnesota Trust Code, a valid spendthrift provision restrains both voluntary and involuntary transfers of a beneficiary’s interest, which generally keeps creditors from reaching it before it is distributed (Minn. Stat. §501C.0502, 2025). The statute has exceptions, so how the provision is written is a question for your attorney (Minn. Stat. §501C.0503, 2025).
Distribution terms work best when your heirs understand them.
An age that made sense for a six-year-old deserves a second look for a thirty-year-old.
Check 4: Does Your Trust Fit 2026 Federal and Minnesota Estate Tax?
For deaths in 2026, the federal estate tax basic exclusion is $15,000,000 per person, set by the 2025 federal tax law and indexed for inflation after 2026 (IRS, 2025). Minnesota runs its own estate tax with a much lower threshold: a $3,000,000 exclusion per person and rates from 13% to 16% (Minn. Stat. §§291.016 and 291.03, 2025). Many Minnesota families owe no federal estate tax but still face Minnesota’s.
Federal vs. Minnesota Estate Tax at a Glance
| Feature | Federal estate tax (2026 deaths) | Minnesota estate tax (2026 deaths) |
|---|---|---|
| Exclusion per person | $15,000,000 | $3,000,000 |
| Tax rates above the exclusion | Graduated, with a top rate of 40% | 13% to 16% |
| Portability of a deceased spouse's unused exclusion | Available by election on a timely filed estate tax return | Not available |
| Inflation adjustment | Indexed for deaths after 2026 | Fixed in statute, not indexed |
| Governing law | Internal Revenue Code §§2001 and 2010, as amended by P.L. 119-21 | Minnesota Statutes chapter 291 |
The missing Minnesota portability matters most for married couples. Under federal law, a surviving spouse can elect to pick up the unused exclusion of the spouse who died first (26 U.S.C. §2010, 2025). Minnesota doesn’t allow that (Minnesota Department of Revenue, 2025). A couple who leaves everything outright to each other may end up using only one $3,000,000 Minnesota exclusion instead of two, unless the plan is built to use both.
Older trusts can misfire in the other direction, too. A trust drafted around a much lower federal exclusion may use a formula that splits assets between sub-trusts in ways that no longer fit your family. Formula language tied to the most that can pass free of federal estate tax deserves a careful read with your attorney now that the federal figure is $15,000,000.
If you’ve moved since you signed, you may now live under a different state’s estate tax, or none at all, and under a different state’s trust law. Several 2025 and 2026 bills proposed raising or repealing Minnesota’s exclusion; as of November 2026 the statute still reads $3,000,000 (Minn. Stat. §291.016, 2026).
When the tax law changes, or your address does, the trust deserves a fresh read.
Check 5: Stress-Test Your Trust Against Real What-Ifs
This stress test has nothing to do with investments. It’s a short list of hard questions, read against the actual language of your trust. Write down every place the honest answer is “I’m not sure.” That list becomes your agenda for your attorney.
- What if you’re in the hospital for three months? Who pays the bills, and can they get to the accounts?
- What if your successor trustee dies or can’t serve before you do?
- What if a child divorces next year, or is sued?
- What if you and your spouse die in the same accident?
- What if a beneficiary dies before you and leaves young children?
- What if you sell the house and buy a home in another state?
- What if a child or grandchild develops a disability and relies on government benefits?
Each question tests a different part of the document: the incapacity trigger, the trustee succession, the protective provisions, the order-of-death clauses and the contingent beneficiaries. A trust that answers all of them clearly is one your family can lean on.
Three Living Trust Mistakes That Undo Good Planning
Mistake 1: Believing a Revocable Trust Cuts Estate Tax
By itself, it doesn’t. Because you can change or revoke the trust, its assets remain part of your taxable estate (26 U.S.C. §2038, 2025). Any tax planning comes from how the trust is written, such as provisions that create separate trusts at the first spouse’s death, not from simply having one.
Mistake 2: Letting Beneficiary Forms Drift Away From the Trust
A retirement account goes to whoever is named on the form, even if your trust says something different (IRS Publication 590-B, 2025). Every new account and every job change creates a new form. Review the forms on the same schedule as the trust.
Mistake 3: Counting on the Law to Clean Up After a Divorce
Minnesota law generally revokes gifts to a former spouse in a revocable trust you created on your own when the marriage ends, unless the trust says otherwise (Minn. Stat. §501C.1207, 2025). Workplace retirement plans governed by ERISA can follow federal rules instead. In Egelhoff v. Egelhoff, the U.S. Supreme Court held that ERISA preempts a state revocation-on-divorce statute for plan beneficiary designations (Egelhoff v. Egelhoff, 2001). The form on file may still control, so update the documents and the forms yourself.
How Often Should You Review a Living Trust?
Review a living trust whenever your family, your assets, your address or the tax law changes, and read it in full every few years even when nothing seems different. Common triggers include a marriage, divorce, birth or death in the family; a refinance, home sale or new account; a move to another state; and a change in federal or Minnesota estate tax law. A short annual check of titles and beneficiary forms catches most funding gaps.
At Lion’s Wealth Management, the trust review sits inside a broader planning conversation, because the trust only works if the rest of the plan matches it.
How to Run Your Own Living Trust Review This Month
- Find the signed trust, every amendment, your pour-over will, your powers of attorney and your health care directive. Note the date on each.
- Run the funding check above: deeds, account statements and beneficiary forms.
- Read the trustee section. Confirm your successor and alternate, and how each one takes over during incapacity.
- Read the distribution section. Note payout ages, any spendthrift language, and what happens if a beneficiary dies before you.
- Read the tax provisions with 2026 numbers in mind: $15,000,000 federal and $3,000,000 Minnesota per person.
- Work through the what-if questions and list every “I’m not sure.”
- Schedule time with your estate planning attorney to address the list, and with your financial advisor to update titles, forms and accounts.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What happens to assets that aren’t in my living trust?
Assets left in your individual name, with no beneficiary or transfer-on-death designation, generally pass under your will. If you have a pour-over will, it directs those assets into the trust, but usually through probate first (Minn. Stat. §524.2-511, 2025). In Minnesota, the simplified affidavit process is limited to probate estates of $75,000 or less (Minn. Stat. §524.3-1201, 2025), so a house left outside the trust usually means a probate proceeding.
2. Does a revocable living trust reduce estate taxes?
Not by itself. Because you keep the power to change or revoke a revocable trust, its assets are included in your taxable estate under federal law (26 U.S.C. §2038, 2025). Tax savings come from specific provisions, such as language that creates separate trusts at the first spouse’s death so a couple can use both Minnesota exclusions. Having a trust and having tax planning inside it are two different things.
3. What is the Minnesota estate tax exemption in 2026?
Minnesota’s estate tax exclusion is $3,000,000 per person for deaths in 2020 and later, and it is not indexed for inflation (Minn. Stat. §291.016, 2025). Rates on the taxable estate above that amount run from 13% to 16% (Minn. Stat. §291.03, 2025). Minnesota does not let a surviving spouse use the deceased spouse’s unused exclusion, so married couples need planning to use both.
4. How often should I review my living trust?
Read your trust in full every few years, and sooner after any major change: a marriage, divorce, birth or death in the family; a refinance, sale or new account; a move to another state; or a change in estate tax law. A quick annual check of deeds, account titles and beneficiary forms catches most funding gaps before they turn into probate problems.
5. Can my successor trustee take over if I become incapacitated?
Usually, but it depends on your document. Many revocable trusts let a successor trustee step in when you can no longer manage your affairs, not only at death. Some require specific proof, such as written statements from one or two physicians. Read the incapacity section of your trust now so your family knows exactly what is required during a medical emergency.
6. Does divorce automatically remove my ex-spouse from my trust and beneficiary forms?
Not always. Minnesota law generally revokes gifts to a former spouse in a revocable trust you created on your own, unless the trust says otherwise (Minn. Stat. §501C.1207, 2025). Workplace retirement plans governed by ERISA can follow federal rules instead, and the beneficiary form on file may still control (Egelhoff v. Egelhoff, 2001). Update the trust and every beneficiary form yourself after a divorce.
Bring Your Findings to the Right People
Your estate planning attorney drafts and amends the trust. Your CPA prepares the tax returns. A financial advisor’s role is to keep the pieces coordinated: making sure accounts are titled the way the trust expects, beneficiary forms match the plan, and the tax picture is understood before the attorney drafts.
We put these five checks on one page in a free guide, the Trust Review Checklist. There’s no pressure, and we work alongside your estate planning attorney rather than in place of one.
If your family, your address or your assets have changed since you signed your trust, it’s time to take the binder off the shelf.
Important information: This article is for educational purposes only and is not legal, tax or investment advice. All examples are hypothetical. Estate and trust law varies by state and changes over time; consult your estate planning attorney and tax professional about your own situation. Tax figures reflect law as of November 2026 and should be re-verified before relying on them. Lion’s Wealth Management is a registered investment adviser.
Works Cited
- Internal Revenue Service. “IRS Releases Tax Inflation Adjustments for Tax Year 2026, Including Amendments From the One, Big, Beautiful Bill (IR-2025-103).” IRS Newsroom. October 9, 2025. https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-releases-tax-inflation-adjustments-for-tax-year-2026-including-amendments-from-the-one-big-beautiful-bill
- Internal Revenue Service. “What’s New — Estate and Gift Tax.” IRS.gov. Accessed November 9, 2026. https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/whats-new-estate-and-gift-tax
- Internal Revenue Service. “Publication 590-B, Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs).” IRS.gov. 2025. https://www.irs.gov/publications/p590b
- Minnesota Department of Revenue. “Estate Tax Portability, S.F. 30 Bill Analysis.” Minnesota Department of Revenue. January 2025. https://www.revenue.state.mn.us/sites/default/files/2025-01/sf0030-estate-tax-portability-2.pdf
- Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. “Minn. Stat. § 291.016, Minnesota Taxable Estate.” Minnesota Statutes. 2025. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/291.016
- Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. “Minn. Stat. § 291.03, Rates.” Minnesota Statutes. 2025. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/291.03
- Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. “Minn. Stat. § 524.2-511, Testamentary Additions to Trusts.” Minnesota Statutes. 2025. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/524.2-511
- Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. “Minn. Stat. § 524.3-1201, Collection of Personal Property by Affidavit.” Minnesota Statutes. 2025. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/524.3-1201
- Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. “Minn. Stat. § 518.003, Definitions.” Minnesota Statutes. 2025. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/518.003
- Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. “Minn. Stat. § 501C.0502, Spendthrift Provision.” Minnesota Statutes. 2025. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/501C.0502
- Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. “Minn. Stat. § 501C.0503, Exceptions to Spendthrift Provision.” Minnesota Statutes. 2025. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/501C.0503
- Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. “Minn. Stat. § 501C.1207, Effect of Dissolution of Marriage.” Minnesota Statutes. 2025. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/501C.1207
- Legal Information Institute. “26 U.S. Code § 2038, Revocable Transfers.” Cornell Law School. Accessed November 9, 2026. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/2038
- Legal Information Institute. “26 U.S. Code § 2010, Unified Credit Against Estate Tax.” Cornell Law School. Accessed November 9, 2026. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/2010
- Legal Information Institute. “26 U.S. Code § 2001, Imposition and Rate of Tax.” Cornell Law School. Accessed November 9, 2026. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/2001
- Supreme Court of the United States. “Egelhoff v. Egelhoff, 532 U.S. 141.” Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center. March 21, 2001. https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/532/141/
- U.S. Census Bureau. “QuickFacts: Minnesota — Median Value of Owner-Occupied Housing Units, 2020–2024.” U.S. Census Bureau. Accessed November 9, 2026. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/MN/HSG495224
