Some Brief Advice on Establishing Trusts

I often have readers and consulting clients write to ask me about establishing family trusts. These are used to shelter assets including land, houses, vehicles, and firearms. In the context of present-day America, one of the goals of any good trust is anonymity. So I recommend that you pick a generic “vanilla” name that is innocuous and that is un-related to your family surname, your locale, the nature of the included assets, your politics, your religion, or your personal interests. The goal here is to have name that won’t trigger suspicion or scrutiny. Some good choices would be “The Hallifax Trust” or “The Sunnyside Trust.” Some bad choices would be: “The Porter Family Patriot Trust, “The Spirit of 1776 Trust”, “The Auric Trust” or “The Kalashnikov Trust.”

In the past, I’ve recommended creating a separate gun trust, primarily for NFA registered ($5 and $200 Federal transfer tax) guns and suppressors. But that window of opportunity appears to be closing. – JWR