At times it is preferable to restate your revocable living trust rather than amend it. The primary reasons for a restatement are simplicity and title.
Simplicity is cultivated by a restatement when yet another amendment adds to the confusion created by multiple modifications to the original trust declaration. Over the years I have witnessed trustees suffer from undue confusion created by multiple amendments. A restatement would simplify the matter by allowing the trustee to look to that one document for guidance without having to figure out which particular part of several amendments survived. The restatement often updates the trust in summary fashion circumventing the interpretation of many amendments.
Title-wise the restatement is far more convenient than assets such as real estate from the old trust to issue a new deed to a totally new trust declaration. It would be a major mistake to draft a new trust while the assets were left on the old trust and thereby distributed in a manner that failed to comply with the desires of the maker of the trust.
Simplicity and Title are major reasons to consider a restatement of your existing trust over a complete revocation and the drafting of a new trust. Through a restatement the creator of the trust can often times completely change the terms of a revocable trust.
Our office is pleased to help in the drafting or administration of a restatement of trust.
