The trust is signed and the house is in it. Then you sit down with the rest of the list: checking, savings, the brokerage account, the 401(k), the truck. That is where the guidance runs out. Does the trust need its own tax ID? Does the bank account get retitled? Jason Gaudy, an estate planning attorney at Gaudy Law in Upland, California, walks through this list with families, and his answers are less absolute than people expect. Worth noting, because Gaudy stops the interview to say it himself: everything below is the general case, and in his words there are 75 factors that could change it.
Does a living trust need its own EIN?
Generally not while you are alive. When Gaudy’s firm creates a living trust, they do not have the client get a new tax ID number. Your Social Security number stays the tax ID for the trust. So technically, he says, no. You do not need an EIN.
You can still title a bank account in the name of your trust while you are alive, using that Social Security number. The trust’s name goes on the account; the tax reporting does not change.
This is a genuine difference from an LLC, and worth keeping straight if you own rentals. Gaudy points out that an LLC does require its own new tax ID number and its own new bank account, which is part of the administrative friction that keeps investors from following through on entities they have already formed. The trust-over-LLC structure for rental property is where that distinction matters.
Which accounts should be in the trust?
Gaudy sorts accounts by whether they already have a beneficiary named.
Retirement and beneficiary-designation accounts. IRAs, 403(b)s, and 401(k)s pass by designation, not by the trust, so they are not retitled. The question is who you name. For a typical married couple with children, his general recommendation is spouse first, then the trust as the second beneficiary. Where the children are older, he says some families simply name the kids instead. He is explicit that this varies family to family.
Investment accounts. His rule here is the firmest: if there is no beneficiary on an investment account, it should definitely be in the trust. An account with no beneficiary and no trust ownership is headed for probate.
Basic checking and savings. Gaudy does not have his own everyday checking and savings accounts in his trust. His reasoning is scale. They are small enough that California’s small estate process can reach them after his death without a full probate. That is a California rule; elsewhere both the dollar limit and the procedure differ, and the small-estate route he describes for a primary residence tops out at $750,000.
That is the mental model. Assets go into the trust to keep them out of probate. Where an asset is small enough, or already routes around probate through a beneficiary designation, the trust does not need to hold it.
What about vehicles?
Typically no, and Gaudy has a memorable version of the answer.
Asked whether the car club guys should be putting their ’56 Chevy in the trust, he splits it. More valuable cars, yes. He recommends putting those in the trust. Not the Honda.
For ordinary vehicles, the DMV has a form that can be filled out with a death certificate, and he describes that process, or going through AAA, as fairly simple for transferring a car to the next of kin. He offers his own as evidence: his ’69 Chevelle is not in his trust.
Why this step is the one people skip
Titling is unglamorous, which is precisely why it fails. Gaudy sees the same pattern repeatedly: a properly drafted trust that was never fully funded, because the deeds or the accounts never actually got moved. The document says one thing and the title says another, and nobody finds out until someone dies. The same is true of entities: he describes LLCs formed online and then abandoned, with no assets transferred and no contracts in the entity’s name. Why DIY online trusts often backfire walks through how these gaps surface.
His firm’s countermeasure is a yearly check-in: a letter or email asking clients whether anything on a short list has happened, such as a marriage, a birth, a death, a divorce, a purchase or sale of property. Any of those can mean the plan needs a change. His broader point is that a trust does not need frequent updating, but when something changes, the person who drafted it should hear about it. More on that in why plans need revisiting.
What this means if you’re planning a 1031 exchange
An exchange puts a large amount of money in motion and parks it in a new asset, and both ends touch the titling questions above. The proceeds move through a qualified intermediary and land in replacement property that has to be vested consistently with how you sold, and that vesting is also the estate planning decision about whether the trust or an entity holds the asset. Investors also open new accounts around a sale: a brokerage account for the portion not exchanged, or a reserve for the tax on any boot (the taxable cash or debt relief left over from an exchange). Those are the accounts opened in a hurry and never titled or beneficiary-designated. If you want a second set of eyes on how the pieces fit, reach out before the closing rather than after.
Watch: Titling Your Bank & Investment Accounts With Your Trust with Jason Gaudy, Gaudy Law
Educational only. Not legal, tax, or investment advice. Jason Gaudy is licensed in California; rules vary by state. Consult your own advisors.