Notarizing your Living Trust......

[groovatron]

Fact: A living trust agreement in Indiana is NOT required by law to be notorized.

I want to bring this topic up for those who are interested as it has recently been brought to my attention while encountering difficulties purchasing a pair of suppressors from a local dealer. The dealer and lawyers involved will remain nameless as I do not have a beef with anybody and this was simply a fact finding mission.

I recently purchased 2 suppressors from a local-to-me Class III dealer. When I presented my Living Trust Agreement, I was told that it was not valid because it was not notarized. I told them that it did not need to be notarized, just signed by 2 witnesses. I had also successfully transferred several Class III itmes previously in this trust without any problems. I cited the Indiana Code as my source of information on the topic. I even read it out loud in the shop. I was confident in the lawyer whom created the document. I also come from a family with several lawyers and notary publics so my confidence was high. The owner did not feel comfortable filling out the Form 4 until he heard from his lawyer. Apparently, this is the first time they had encountered a trust that was not notarized in 2 years of business.

Luckily, I heard from one of his lawyer consults the same day and we got everything cleared up.

Folks.........listen HARD pleeaaaaazzzzz. DO NOT USE LEGAL ZOOM OR ANY OTHER GENERIC ONLINE SOURCE FOR ANSWERS OR FACT FINDING. THEY CONTAIN GENERIC INFORMATION THAT IS BOTH MISLEADING AND WRONG!!!!

Another thing I want to clear up is that Indiana has NOT adopted the "Uniform Trust Code." This seems to be a common misconception that I encountered during this fact finding mission.

The only document relating to your Living Trust that would bare a notary requirement would be a Certification of Trust. A Certification of Trust is a document used to verify the legal existence of a Trust without presenting the actual Trust itself.

All of this information is simply based on Indiana Law. Notarizing a Living Trust is not required, but if you feel the need to do it, go nuts

Now that it has been spoken on the interwebz, LET IT BE KNOWN

Sources:
IC 30-4-2-1.5
Several Indiana Lawyer consults

 

[CampingJosh]

Why did you present the trust to the dealer?

I show the first page so that the person filling out the Form 4 can type the name of the trust correctly (since I got my first one back rejected for not having "the" at the beginning of the transferee name).

ETA: And my trust isn't notarized, either. Just signed by witnesses. If I remember correctly, we were celebrating my birthday and had an ice cream cake that evening.

 

[groovatron]

Why did you present the trust to the dealer?

I show the first page so that the person filling out the Form 4 can type the name of the trust correctly (since I got my first one back rejected for not having "the" at the beginning of the transferee name).

ETA: And my trust isn't notarized, either. Just signed by witnesses. If I remember correctly, we were celebrating my birthday and had an ice cream cake that evening.

The dealer in question had miss information about the whole process. He was under the assumption that he was also required to keep a copy of the trust on file

Luckily, this has been set straight and both parties involved are more well informed.

 

[Six Shooter Steve]

I personally had my trust notorized. I knew it wasn't necessary but it had a spot on it to notorize when drafted by my lawyer. That and we have a notary at my work who does it for free, so I took advantage of it.
I have only done buissiness with one class 3 dealer so I didn't know they didn't need to see your trust ( glad to have that information) the dealer I use does all the paperwork, cuts the check to the ATF, and mails it in for you so I had the trust in hand for them to send in with the paperwork.
Thanks for the info in this post!

 

[romad7]

I did it too. Whatever the local laws are, I wanted to make sure that I was good with the ATF. My dealer did the e-forms process for me the first time so I sent them the notarized trust. Not a big deal on both counts.

 

[groovatron]

I did it too. Whatever the local laws are, I wanted to make sure that I was good with the ATF. My dealer did the e-forms process for me the first time so I sent them the notarized trust. Not a big deal on both counts.

Yeah, its not a big deal until a dealer tells you that you must get a pre-existing trust notarized to be legit. Not only is it misinformation, but I'm not sure it's even possible without drawing up a new Trust.

 

[tmater]

I got mine notarized because it was easy to do, but good info that you don't have to.