Auto Title in Trust Name?

[Gulfman]

Hi Friends,

An acquaintance of mine says he is able to put;

1. Title to his car into the name of "his trust" (his registration and paper work show the trust owns the car) and then
2. Calls the insurance co., and gets full coverage on his vehicle in his "personal name!"
3. He is the sole beneficiary of his trust...so i'm not sure if there would be a problem?
4. He makes his payments from his personal checking account.

QUESTION;

• Will he be covered in case of an accident or total loss?

• Any other issues that could come up?

Thanks for your input!

~G

 

[Heather]

I had this trust issue come up a few months ago. In NY the trust is listed on the title and as loss payee, my client is on the registration and has the car on his personal insurance policy. The only way to have the trust as the registrant was on a commercial policy and that cost more than giving him multi-car discount and adding to his personal policy along with his home and existing cars. The trust in this case is for the benefit of a disabled child and a van was purchased to transport the child.

 

[djs]

I would talk with the trust attorney.

The risk is if he gets into a major accident and now the trust can get sued, defeating one of the potential benefits of things being in the trust.

Some carriers won't insure 'things' in a trust, since the trust is technically a business, others don't seem to care. Just make sure the carrier is aware of it upfront and then there shouldn't be a problem.

Why put a car in a trust? Unless its a hi value car, this doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Is it simply to hide assets?

Dan

 

[Gulfman]

Thanks all,

The only asset the trust owns is the Car....and he's the beneficiary of the trust so technically, he's the owner of the car. He told me he does it for anonymity purposes only. Not sure what would happen if push comes to shove in an accident since he has coverage on the car.

???