Can a revocable living trust be amended for single and married people?

Attorney Tom Olsen: Let's talk about living trust, and whether or not they can be amended.

Attorney Holley Knapik: Yes. A living revocable trust is, one, revocable during your lifetime if you are the trustee of the trust, and amendable during your lifetime, so if you need to make changes to your plan of distribution or who you're appointing as your successor trustee, you can do all of that while you are alive.

Tom: Let's take it to another level. A married couple does a joint living trust, which most married couples do, one living trust serves them both. If you look at the standard language then our living trust, it states that when one of them passes away, the survivor can change the trust.

Holley: Yes, they can make any changes to the trust, moving forward during the surviving spouse's lifetime.

Tom: Now, that is standard operating procedure, but sometimes, a married couple will tell us, "Tom, when one of us passes away, we don't want the survivor to be able to amend the trust."

Holley: Yes.

Tom: For example, we have put together a plan of distribution, we have children from previous marriages, this joint living trust we put together while we're both alive, it says when we both pass away it's going to all of our kids. If I pass away first, I don't want my wife to be able to come in, change it, and leave it to just her kids.

Holley: Then that's when our language will reflect that.

Tom: When somebody calls us and said, "Hey, we have a joint living trust, my husband has passed away, can the wife amend it?" Well, we got to see the trust and see what it says. Hopefully, if it's a good trust, guess what? It's going to be a big bold language.

Holley: Exactly, where it's easily identifiable, and you can say, right off the bat, "Yes, they can change it," or, "No, they cannot change it."

Tom: Exactly. That's the reason why, sometimes, we allow a married couple, the survivor, to change a trust, sometimes, we don't.

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