I met with an attorney in regards to having a revocable trust drawn up for NFA firearms. He stated to me that he did not have the experience with NFA specific language regarding creating such a trust. I think his concern is the disposition of the firearms in the event that both trustees become incapacitated or die. My wife and myself would be the trustees.
Can anyone reccommend an attorney in the central Virginia region that could has experience creating a NFA specific trust?
Thanks
I’m sorry I cannot pass on a direct reference, but I will share my experience.
I called David Goldman in FL, of http://www.guntrustlawyer.com/, to find resources for a VA trust lawyer specializing in NFA. His explanation was that he would work with out of state attorneys and provide the NFA specific verbiage to craft the trust according to your individual state code and needs. The fee you would pay would be split between him and your state attorney, but that it is entirely up to your situation.
He was very accommodating and willing to answer my questions etc. I have not yet followed through with the trust, so I cannot provide a reference for his services or the final product. You may want to at least consider him as a resource.
Best of luck.
There’s nothing unique to a RLT when used for NFA items. If you’re just using it for NFA, see if a dealer in your area will set it up for you. That’s what I did.
The only part of my trust that’s unique to the NFA trinkets is the Sch A listing which is simply a list of assets in the trust.
See if there is someone in your area from this list:
Quicken Will maker is all you need. I’m in Virginia as well, and got my first stamp last week using this route with the Trust template. The Quicken program creates all the paperwork for passing items in the trust to survivors in the event of your untimely demise. The less you have to deal with actual lawyers the better. No offense to any legal types out there :).
That’s all my dealer used for mine. If the trust is strictly for NFA stuff, I’d skip the lawyer fees.
I’m not well versed in neither Trusts nor NFA rules, so perhaps this is a dumb question, but can the Willmaker trust handle multiple trustees (i.e., including my wife and maybe another family member) and adding multiple NFA items (at later dates)? I read something a while back that indicated those were more specialized situations and needed some legal input. I never verified the truth to that claim, and to be honest I don’t remember were I read it, other that someone out on the errornet.
I don’t know the answer to that.
I too want to do a trust next month when I am on R/R for NFA. I have heard that the Quicken Willmaker will work very good. Maybe some of you who have done this can provide some more details. For example- I want to list my wife and I as the Trustees. Is that allowed? Is there a specific way the actors have to named? How many persons do you need for a basic trust to be done correctly?
Can someone provide an example of the Schedule A?
Stuff like this would be very helpful.
Yes, you can list more than one person as a trustee/Grantor. I believe 2 people is the max you can have. I added my wife because technically she wouldn’t even be allowed to have access to the safe where I keep my NFA stuff if she wasn’t a trustee. The “wizard” in Willmaker walks you through the process and lets you designate who will become acting trustee etc… should one or both of the trustee’s die, and who gets the property eventually. I set up my son to be the beneficiary of the property if both of us pass. He is only 2 years old right now so I set up my father to hold the items in trust until he reaches an age where he can legally own them. It sounds more complicated than it is, but the program just asks you questions, you fill in the answers, and it prints out all the documents.
The only thing quirky about Willmaker is it automatically uses your first and last names when nameing the trust (i.e. John & Jan Doe Revocable Living Trust) . The program doesn’t let you edit the trust name. I wanted to name my trust with just my initials as in “ABC Revocable Living Trust”. All you have to do is save the trust to another format once it is completed (Microsoft word) and edit it accordingly with whatever name you want to use for the actual trust. Just make sure you replace all instances of “John & Jane Doe Revocable Living Trust” with "ABC Revocable living trust in the document.
Schedule A is ridiculously simple. It’s simply a numbered list off your NFA trinkets… For example, the first thing on my Sch A is:
And you just add stuff on from there. When you get to AZ you can check out my full trust if you want.
I would like to thank everyone who has responded. I talked with a firearms friendly attorney, and I am going to see if he can work with me.
On another note, is it a violation if you let another person handle or fire your NFA firearm even though you are with them? I saw on the guntrustlawyer link that this was a violation. Can anyone expand on this?
Thanks.
NO -
It’s a registered MG/SBR/SBS and the owner/grantor/etc…is present whilst you “play” with the weapon.
GEEZER
demi,
I appreciate it. I am looking forward to R/R next month. My wife just completed the move yesterday and is now in the organizing phase. My time has been cut a little short, but oh well. I think I may go ahead and get that Willmaker program now and see what happens. Thanks
sorry if this info is a little late,i had this attorney draft a trust for me.he’s an estate planning attorney and also a class 3 dealer.he’s out of roanoke va.
Lenden Eakin LAE@Lendensguns.com
540-344-3233
www.roanokevirginialaw.com
www.class3only.com
The 1iviper,
Did you travel to Roanoke to draft the trust, or did you handle it over the phone/computer? What was the turn around time for Mr. Eakin to draft the trust? If i decide to utilize his services, how much should I be expecting him to charge? Finally, are you satisfied with your experience with him?
Thanks for providing the info and links.
shrek25–no need to travel to roanoke, did everything by phone and e-mail.i paid $300 for him to draft the trust.i corresponded back and forth for about a week, his assistant will e-mail a word or excel doc with the draft of the trust for you to go over and make any changes/corrections to.then once paid she will mail the trust to you and you just need to get it notorized,my bank did mine at no charge.very good people to work with actually,you will correspond mostly with his assistant unless you want to ask him any questions personally.i spoke with him a couple of times about the draft.
honestly it was just for the peace of mind that i went with an attorney to draft the trust since it is a legal binding document and i knew nothing about living trusts. but if i had it to do all over again i would probobly use www.livingtrustsontheweb.com or quicken willmaker.livingtrustsontheweb is like legalzoom but just does trusts.they also only charge like $199 for a “couple” trust and $149 for an individual trust.i had mine set up with my wife as a trustee and my brother as an successor trustee should something happen to me or to me and my wife there is a way for your heirs to legally own your nfa without going through a bunch of hassle.
i have not used the trust yet to purchase any nfa items though.filling out form1’s for 2 lowers to sbr at the moment,hopefully will be in the mail next week,and am currently looking for an ffl/sot dealer to do a form 4 transfer for me on a pre registered sbr lower.hopefully i filled the paperwork out correctly and have no probs on the form 1’s:confused:.
i do have a packet of info about him and trusts that i picked up i could mail you if interested.if you have any q’s that i can help out with just let me know:).although there seems to be alot more knowledgeable folks here,it’s one of the places i come to look for answers to my q’s.
1iviper - I contacted the attorney you recommended. The trust is in the process of being drafted.
Thanks for pointing me in his direction.
no problem.
give the draft a good looking over for corrections,typo’s and such.i found a couple revisions.
have fun with your future nfa goodies 
I can help out any members in VA who want an attorney to create a trust specifically for NFA items and to address issues specific to NFA items and their individual situations for a reasonable fee.
I understand the cost issue and why people use generic software products, but there are many pitfalls caused by the interface of trusts and NFA laws and regs and you really need to think ahead. I probably spent at least 8-10 hours with the Virginia Uniform Trust Code and various NFA materials working out the details of my own NFA trust, and it really does pay to think 2 steps ahead in terms of disposition and smoothly complying with the NFA if you get hit by a bus.