Gun trusts are a separate legal entity that hold firearms on your behalf, providing several advantages:
No. Only the BATFE is aware of the trust when you submit a Form 1 or Form 4.
No. The only government agency that will have record of your gun trust is the BATFE.
No. There are no ongoing costs associated with having a trust.
Corporations and LLCs have several disadvantages compared to trusts. Business entities are:
Yes. Our trust contains the necessary documents for adding and removing trustees. Any trustee can legally possess and use the trust's firearms. Trustees can be added or removed at any time, and there is no limit to the number of trustees.
The trust's documents contain specific language to deal with the trustor's death or incapacitation.
Anyone, including minors, may be a beneficiary of the trust. In the case that a minor is a beneficiary, the trust is designed to hold and manage the assets until the beneficiary reaches the required age.
Yes. The standard approval process of submitting NFA Form 1 or Form 4 to the ATF can take months. For more information on ATF approval time, consult nfatracker.com.
No.
Trustees are people who can act on behalf of the trust. They may possess and operate the trust's firearms, manage the trust's assets, as well as appoint or remove trustees. A trustee must be eighteen years of age to possess items regulated by the National Firearms Act.
Beneficiaries are people who will ultimately receive ownership of the trust's assets.
The trust's successor replaces the original trustor upon his death or incapacitation, and is responsible for transfering ownership of the trust's assets to the beneficiaries.
Anything you want. However, it is probably a good idea to keep the name short, relevant, and easily identifiable.
The ATF requires you to submit applications for manufacturing, transferring, and transporting firearms.
The most common forms you will need when operating your trust will be Form 4, Form 23, and FD-258. For more information about ATF forms, visit our ATF Forms Page.
If you're moving within your current state, you are required to fill out Form 20 to notify the ATF of your firearm's change of address.
If you move to a new state, you should first determine if your weapons are legal in that state, then you are required to fill out a Form 20 to notify the ATF of the change of address of the weapons.
Most states will recognize your gun trust even if you opened it in a different state; the one exception being the state of Maine which does not recognize any trust created out of state.
This form should be filled out in duplicate and both copies submitted to:
BATFE
Attention: NFA Branch
244 Needy Road
Martinsburg, WV 25405
It depends. As of this writing, the ATF EForm website only provides EForms for Form 6 (used by FFL holders who wish to import firearms into the US), Form 1 (for manufacturing an NFA weapon), Form 2 (for FFL holders registering manufactured NFA firearms), Form 5 (for a tax-exempt firearm transfer), Form 9 (for FFL holders exporting NFA weapons), and ATF 5300.11 (for an FFL holder's yearly report of their manufacturing and export activity).
Unfortunately, Form 4 (the form you would use to transfer an NFA firearm into your trust) is not currently available as an EForm.
You will need two items: the trust and the tax stamp. The trust will identify you as a trustee, and the tax stamp will show that the BATFE approved of the trust.
Any that your state will allow. A gun trust does not expand your ability to own restricted firearms. Instead, it provides a convenient legal entity which owns them on your behalf.
Our documents are very similar to the documents you could get from a lawyer or other legal service. Gun Trust Depot does not provide legal advice, so if your trust has special requirements, or you need additional consultation, we suggest that you contact a lawyer in your area.
Ultimately, you are responsible for your gun trust. You may hold your attorney accountable for providing poor legal advice, but you would still be liable for any problems that may arise. While many lawyers carry malpractice insurance, the law sees the trustor as the responsible party regardless of how it was formed.
No. Most states have either adopted or mimicked The Uniform Trust Code. This makes trust laws very similar. While there are minor differences between states, our documents conform to the most stringent regulations.
Yes. The assignment Forms are provided for that purpose.
Our trust includes assignment forms which provide much the same function. To learn more about the differences between a Schedule "A" and assignment forms, click here. If you would like to have a schedule "A" instead, please contact us.
A signature and notarization is all that's required to make your trust official and ready to use. Your trust document must be signed by you and all of your co-trustees and acknowledged by a notary. Depending on your state, the notarization process may need be witnessed by one or more parties.
A witness is any party that can impartially observe the notarization of your trust.
Many banks and UPS stores often offer notary services. Most notarizations are not very expensive (about $10), but the price will vary depending on your state and notary. You can find notaries in your area by visiting Notary123's Find a Notary page.
It depends on your state. In some states, all of the trust's initial trustees (trustees that were added during its creation), must be present to sign. To be safe, we recommend that all of the initial trustees be present for the trust's signing.
Yes, our trust specifically states that beneficiaries are not liable for debts, other obligations, or legal processes initiated by creditors.
A curio and relic firearm is one that falls into at least one of the following categories:
Learn more about curio and relic firearms on atf.gov.
Yes, all of our gun trusts are revocable, and they all become irrevocable upon the death or incapacitation of the settlor.
This simply means that our trusts can be amended or changed at any time by the person who set the trust up (the settlor), but should the settlor die or become incapacitated, the trust may no longer be modified
It is certainly possible to have more than one trust, particularly if the trusts have different purposes: you may want to keep the assets in your existing trust separate from the assets in a gun trust. The gun trust will have extra provisions that are specific to the handling of firearms / NFA items, so it is a good idea to have a separate trust for such a purpose.
In short, no. Revocable trusts normally use the social security number of the trustor for taxation purposes. This means that all trust income (if any) is reported on the trustor's income taxes. When the trustor dies and the trust becomes irrevocable, the IRS requires the trust to have its own tax ID number.
The IRS requires all irrevocable trusts to use their own EINs for tax purposes. If the trustor of a living revocable trust obtains an EIN for the trust before he dies, a new EIN for the trust will still need to be created once the trust becomes irrevocable.