Personal Finance (Not Investing) • Trust and a 529 plan how should it be setup?

On the call, they said that you cannot name a trust as a successor owner.

Ok, forget naming the trust as successor owner then. On my plan I can, but I think I prefer naming the trust as the owner now.

It also sounded like the trust entity form wouldn’t work well because if I named myself as the trustee and my wife as the successor trustee, there is no place to list the financial institution we want to serve as the successor trustee. Why does this seem like a PITA

Talk to your lawyer, but I don't think this is a problem at all. The form serves as a contact sheet for the trustees, but the trust remains the owner. If both the named trustees pass away at the same time, then the trust is still the owner. It would be a matter then of the trust company (the bank department you chose) to show they are now the trustee of the trust.

If it weren't simultaneously though, you or your spouse would update the successor trustee information on the 529 at first passing.

I know you cited this

“If an Account Owner does not designate a Successor Owner, or if the designated person is not alive at the time ownership of the Account transfers… ownership of the Account will pass to the Beneficiary, or if the Beneficiary is not 18 years of age, the person designated to inherit assets of the type represented by the Account in an Account Owner’s will or by operation of law.”

, but I don't think that would ever come into play because the trust will not die. It will be up to the trust documents then to specify who the trustee is.

Statistics: Posted by typical.investor — Mon Feb 09, 2026 2:34 pm — Replies 10 — Views 435

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