Drafted and funded, in the same building
A trust that owns nothing avoids nothing.
Signing the documents is the part everyone does. Making them actually operate (the titling, the beneficiary forms, the funding) is the part almost everyone skips, and it is the part that decides whether any of it works.
- Discipline
- Law
- PILOT layer
- Ownership & Control
- Starts with
- A Clarity Map Session
What you probably arrived with
The questions this answers.
If none of these is your question, this is likely the wrong page, and one of the other five is probably the right one.
Is our trust actually funded, or is it just signed?
Would our estate go through probate anyway?
Do the beneficiary forms agree with the will?
What would our family actually have to do if something happened to us tonight?
The thing almost everyone believes
What is assumed
“We have a will and a trust, so the estate side is handled.”
What is actually true
Documents are necessary and, on their own, close to inert. The three most common failures are an unfunded trust, a beneficiary form that overrides the will, and a plan nobody can find, and none of the three is a drafting error. They are all things that happen after the signing, which is why the drafting attorney and the people watching the money need to be the same conversation.
What we actually do
Four pieces of work, in this order.
Mechanisms rather than benefits. Each of these is a thing somebody sits down and does, and you can tell whether it has been done.
Check what is signed against what is titled
Every account, every deed, every policy, read against the documents. This is where uncoordinated plans are found, and it is usually an afternoon’s work to discover something that would have cost the family a great deal.
Fund the trust, not just draft it
Re-titling accounts and property into the trust is the step that turns a document into a mechanism. Nobody does it by accident, and an attorney who drafts without following through has not finished the job.
Reconcile every beneficiary designation
Retirement accounts and life policies pass by designation regardless of what the will says. A form completed decades ago wins. Reviewing all of them together is the only way to find the one that is wrong.
Make the plan findable
Access, instructions, and the names of the people who need calling. A plan your executor cannot locate on a Sunday evening has not been delivered.
Decided alongside this one
These three change the answer here.
Which is the entire argument for a family office: none of the six can be settled properly on its own.
Plain answers
What people ask about estate & legacy.
Who does the legal drafting?
DuPont Law Group, the estate planning firm Gregory S. DuPont founded. It is a separate firm from Advocate Wealth Solutions, run by the same person, which is the point: the attorney drafting the trust and the planner watching the money are not strangers.
How do I find out whether my trust is funded?
Look at how each significant account and property is titled and see whether the trust is named. If you cannot tell from the statements, that is itself the answer, and it is one of the first things a Clarity Map Session checks.
How long does estate planning take?
DuPont Law Group works to a 2-2-2 standard: two appointments, two weeks apart, two hours or less of your time. The most common reason people postpone estate planning is assuming it will eat their year.
Start here
This is one of six services, and they are decided together.
Which is why the first step is the same whichever page brought you here: a Clarity Map Session, showing where your income, your future tax bill and your estate documents actually stand. Free, no obligation.
30 minutes · No cost · No obligation