Illinois Gun Trust

[guzzimike66]

Anyone set up a gun trust in Illinois? Not for NFA stuff, just for regular guns. Family who live in Illinois get a FOID card for just this purpose. Out of state family wouldn't need a FOID.

 

The reason I ask is that last fall my mom passed away, and as an executor on her will/trust I have had a crash course in how money/possessions/etc in her trust gets handled differently than what's in the estate. 1 example is that money in her trust checking account had beneficiaries designated while her regular checking account didn't, so the trust account is protected from creditors. I would like to do something similar with firearms, accessories, etc. in that I would designate 1 or more family members as secondary trustees so that in the event something were to happen to me they could take posession without any drama.

 

If you've done this can you share your experience and/or point me to a lawyer familiar with doing a gun trust in Illinois?

 

Thanks in advance

[Benbow]

for 99% of people, for non-NFA items, a "gun trust" makes no sense at all.  I have been approached probably a dozen times by persons who thought they needed a gun trust.  Couple of them needed estate planning, for which I referred them to an appropriate lawyer, but none of them needed a gun trust.  In my experience, most people want their gun collection, if it is to stay in the family, to have as few paper trails as possible, and if the guns are going to be sold, they are just another asset.

 

The whole gun trust thing was a basically now closed NFA loophole to avoid needing a CLEO signoff and fingerprints.  The new rules actually are better for  NFA stuff.  Unless your going to do dealing with a large multigenerational NFA collection, gun trusts make little sense today, except for bona fide estate purposes, and that would be a LOT of guns.

[guzzimike66]

On 4/2/2024 at 10:05 AM, Benbow said:

for 99% of people, for non-NFA items, a "gun trust" makes no sense at all.  I have been approached probably a dozen times by persons who thought they needed a gun trust.  Couple of them needed estate planning, for which I referred them to an appropriate lawyer, but none of them needed a gun trust.  In my experience, most people want their gun collection, if it is to stay in the family, to have as few paper trails as possible, and if the guns are going to be sold, they are just another asset.

 

The whole gun trust thing was a basically now closed NFA loophole to avoid needing a CLEO signoff and fingerprints.  The new rules actually are better for  NFA stuff.  Unless your going to do dealing with a large multigenerational NFA collection, gun trusts make little sense today, except for bona fide estate purposes, and that would be a LOT of guns.

Thanks. My concern is that non gun owning family who might admin my estate/trust down the road don't do something that might get them into trouble, like putting them in their trunk, driving around, getting pulled over and them telling the LEO there are firearms in the trunk. . I imagine in the will I could put language along the lines of "Leave them where they are. Contact Person X who will assist you in valuation, transport & sale" or something to that effect. Likely I'm over thinking it.

 

[John Q Public]

Easy, just have them apply for the FOID card and tell them why.

 

 

[Jeffrey]

I've contemplated this a bit myself.  The more I think about it, the less I stress.  Assuming I'm dead at the point of time, I won't care what happens to them then...

[lawman]

On 4/2/2024 at 12:18 PM, guzzimike66 said:

Thanks. My concern is that non gun owning family who might admin my estate/trust down the road don't do something that might get them into trouble, like putting them in their trunk, driving around, getting pulled over and them telling the LEO there are firearms in the trunk. . I imagine in the will I could put language along the lines of "Leave them where they are. Contact Person X who will assist you in valuation, transport & sale" or something to that effect. Likely I'm over thinking it.

 

Do not put this into your will.  Leave a separate letter for your executor that has no legal effect and will not be a matter of public record.  In it you can express guidance, concerns, potential pitfalls, your opinion of Joe Biden,  etc.  Putting specific things into your will handcuffs the executor.  In this example, what if Person X is dead, incompetent, or refuses to deal with the issue?  It is then going to take a court hearing and order to get this changed.

[JTHunter]

guzzimike66 - of greater importance is for everything - and I do mean everything - be listed.  I am executor for my Mother's estate and a snag has developed because all her financial assets from her brokerage account and checking accounts were moved to an "estate account".  From that, the various relatives got their various percentages.  What the estate lawyer is telling me now is that all of her furniture, pictures, Beanie Babies (and asst. other "collectible"), should have been on a property list and portioned out to the relatives according to her wishes.

That didn't happen.

My brother, S-i-L, and I took what we needed/wanted and had an auctioneer come in to pack up the rest to be sold and the proceeds split between the 2 of us.  Despite the fact that NONE of these items were ever listed in any way NOR were supposed to part of the estate funds, this lawyer is giving me some grief about it.

Now we have also run into another problem.  Some kind of "limited partnership" real estate deal Mom was part of sent her the K-1s last week, something that I had forgotten about as the last correspondence from them was in 2/23 with a check that we both (Mom & I) thought was the "final pay-out".  The K-1s came with a letter stating that there was still one piece of property to be sold and that it might take 2+ years.  When contacted, I found out that Mom had made no beneficiary designation so now the problem is to try and get them to transfer ownership.  It would have been easy to do last summer before Mom died as I had P.o.A. for her but with her health declining, this asset slipped "through the cracks".

To put it bluntly - INVENTORY EVERYTHING !!  If the owner is still living, have them say "who gets what" and write that all down.

 

Good luck.

[TRussell]

On 4/2/2024 at 2:34 PM, John Q Public said:

Easy, just have them apply for the FOID card and tell them why.

 

 

That has been my approach. My son inlaw and grandson both have FOID cards. They are familiar with my firearm inventory. I have covered with them who should get what as I have arms that belonged to my Dad and one of my Grandpas.