Want to pass your home, your savings and your belongings to your family WITHOUT putting them through probate — the slow, public, expensive court process that settles an estate? A revocable living trust is the estate-planning workhorse that does it. You (the settlor) declare a trust, move your assets into it, name yourself trustee so nothing changes in your day-to-day control, name a successor trustee to take over when you die or become incapacitated, and name the beneficiaries who inherit — all outside probate. While you’re alive and well it stays fully revocable: add or remove property, change beneficiaries, or tear it up entirely, any time. This builds that whole declaration of trust. Pick who’s creating it and PaperKit reshapes the instrument: an INDIVIDUAL trust for one person, or a JOINT trust for a married couple as co-trustees (the survivor carries on as sole trustee). Choose how your beneficiaries take — a single beneficiary, several in equal shares, or a primary with a named alternate if the primary predeceases you. Name your successor trustee, list the assets that fund the trust (the real estate, accounts and securities you’ll retitle into it), add optional specific gifts, and toggle the core provisions: the right to amend and revoke during life (uncheck it to make an irrevocable trust), the probate-avoidance recital, and an incapacity clause that lets your successor trustee step in without a court-ordered guardianship. PaperKit assembles every section — declaration and name of trust, settlor and trustee, trust property and funding, revocation and amendment, administration during your life (and incapacity), distribution on death, successor-trustee powers, and governing law. It’s a self-declaration: the settlor reviews and e-signs it online. Clean PDF you can take to a notary. (Funding the trust — actually retitling assets — is what makes it work; execution, witnessing and tax rules vary by state, so confirm your state’s requirements and consider an attorney.)
The big lever — one settlor's individual trust, or a married couple's joint trust. This reshapes the whole declaration and the execution blocks.
Individual trust: you alone declare the trust and typically serve as your own trustee during life. A successor trustee steps in on your death or incapacity and distributes the trust estate to your beneficiaries — without probate.
One beneficiary takes the trust estate after your death.
The person creating the trust (also called the grantor or trustor). This is a self-declaration of trust: you draft and e-sign it; your successor trustee and beneficiaries take under the trust without signing.
You usually serve as your own initial trustee during life. The successor trustee takes over on your death or incapacity — name someone you trust.
List the assets you're placing in the trust. A trust only avoids probate for assets actually retitled into the trustee's name (real estate, accounts, securities) — this is called funding the trust.
A revocable living trust stays fully in your control while you're alive: you can add or remove property, change beneficiaries, or revoke it entirely. It becomes irrevocable on your death, when the successor trustee distributes the estate to your beneficiaries without probate.
A real, section-by-section declaration of trust. The trust choice drives individual vs joint; the beneficiary choice reframes how your beneficiaries take. Publish to get a hosted link the settlor can e-execute online.
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A revocable living trust (declaration of trust) is a template for convenience, not legal advice. It lets a settlor manage assets during life, plan for incapacity, and pass assets to beneficiaries outside probate — but only for assets actually retitled into the trust (funding). Required execution, witnessing / notarization formalities, spousal / community-property and homestead rules, tax treatment and funding steps vary by state and circumstances, and a trust is commonly paired with a pour-over will, powers of attorney and a health-care directive. Whether a living trust is the right tool (versus a will, a transfer-on-death deed, a lady bird deed, or beneficiary designations) depends on your state and circumstances. PaperKit is not a law firm. Review the instrument and consult a qualified attorney.