I did the Quicken thing myself and it passed
This ^^^BATF approval of your transfer does NOT mean your trust is valid. It could be challenged at a later date. That is the best reason for using an attorney, so you can be sure.
Tim Kalamaros is an associate of David Goldmans' Guntrustlawyer.com. I used his services for my trust. Best $600 I ever spent, lets me sleep well at night.
Tim is a responsive and very informative gentleman.
This ^^^
The ATF's approval of your item means you have a trust that looks like it might be legal and you're approved to transfer/make the Title II item. It has absolutely NO bearing on the legality of your trust, and in 15 years, your trust might be challenged and you'll be SOL with no support behind it.
Goldman (guntrustlawyer.com) and his IN attorney Tim Kalamaros are top-notch. If you want a trust that is mostly likely going to be able to transferred to other states with minimal or no changes I would recommend this route 100% because the main body of the trust is written with all states in mind and the details are tailored on a state-by-state basis. The very nature of how this trust is written makes it ideal for multi-state use if you think you might move in the future.
and in 15 years, your trust might be challenged and you'll be SOL with no support behind it.
Practically anybody can challenge the legality of the trust as long as they have an interest. Government can if they think the trust violates laws, or the trust's legality can be challenged if they think it isn't a legal entity and therefore laws have been violated as a result. Trustees, beneficiaries, they can all challenge the trust, even if the grantor is alive given the right circumstances and/or the wrong terminology in the trust.By whom? Who would challenge the trust? Who could challenge the trust?
Who has standing to challenge a trust while the grantor is still alive? Serious question here.
I'm not a lawyer, but I believe that a revocable trust cannot be legally challenged while the grantor is still alive. And how would someone get the trust document in order to challenge it, anyway? It's not public record.
I'm confused by this oft-made claim about DIY trusts. I think it may be (at least in part) a marketing ploy by trust lawyers.
Practically anybody can challenge the legality of the trust as long as they have an interest. Government can if they think the trust violates laws, or the trust's legality can be challenged if they think it isn't a legal entity and therefore laws have been violated as a result. Trustees, beneficiaries, they can all challenge the trust, even if the grantor is alive given the right circumstances and/or the wrong terminology in the trust.
Maybe quicken has changed, but I actually bought the program before I got my trust because I had the same idea (save lots of money). I followed the directions to a T. But the program itself doesn't allow for ANY form of variation. It has only one form trust that inserts your info into blanks and then prints it out. It is nothing more than a VERY BASIC trust with your name inserted. If you don't care what happens to your NFA items after you pass and you don't intend to share them with other trustees while living then a quicken trust may do ok for you. But if you actually care about what happens after you pass and/or you want to share them with other trustees, good luck with your computer trust.So if you're really really paranoid, the easy solution is to change the trust name, hit "print" again, sign again, and put no more than one NFA item in each trust.
Maybe quicken has changed
Practically anybody can challenge the legality of the trust as long as they have an interest. Government can if they think the trust violates laws, or the trust's legality can be challenged if they think it isn't a legal entity and therefore laws have been violated as a result. Trustees, beneficiaries, they can all challenge the trust, even if the grantor is alive given the right circumstances and/or the wrong terminology in the trust.
As long as the grantor of a revocable trust is alive, the beneficiary does not have an interest.