What is a Gun Trust and Why You Need One:

A gun trust is a trust (either revocable or irrevocable) that is used to hold legal title to firearms. It is a living trust, which means that it can be changed or amended during the grantor’s lifetime. All in all, a gun trust should be used by any person who has a collection of guns and plans to pass them along to heirs. Regardless of whether or not you plan to purchase NFA firearms such as suppressors, short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, machine guns, or any other NFA firearm, your heirs will be protected if you have a gun trust that you can control.

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Benefits to having a gun trust:

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• Normally, only the person who the NFA firearm (such as a suppressor/silencer) is registered to can have possession, but because the trust holds legal title to the firearms, it allows more than one person to have possession of a NFA firearm.

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• A trust keeps your privacy because it is not registered and does not go through probate at the grantor’s death, unlike a will, thus keeping your firearms in the trust confidential.

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• Avoids guardianship and conservatorship issues. In other words, just because grandpa may be getting old and cannot balance his check book anymore, he shouldn’t lose his second amendment right to keep and bear arms.

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• Gun trusts are also easy to amend and maintain, and do not require annual maintenance fees or registration like a corporation or a limited liability company.

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• The terms of the trust are drafted in such a way that prohibit illegal possession and transfer of firearms and provides alternative solutions when needed. In this manner, a gun trust helps avoid an “accidental felony”.

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• In a trust, you have beneficiaries that can be appointed and co-trustees. Our gun trusts give guidance to the trustees and make it clear on how to deal with a beneficiary that is no longer able to legally be in possession of firearms. Perhaps they have become a felon or have been dishonorably discharged from a branch of the armed forces. In these instances, among many others, they would no longer be allowed to legally possess firearms. A gun trust can deal with these matters as they arise, through an amendment, rather than having to revamp your entire will. The ability to add or remove either lifetime or remainder beneficiaries is a great way to maintain control over your trust and protect your loved ones.

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• Our gun trust also allows you to distribute your firearms by written memorandum to whomever you choose to have a certain firearm, without penalty. It also deals with transfer and possession issues upon death and incapacity, and it avoids an additional tax return.

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• If your firearms are legally held by your trust, any effort to remove your personally owned firearms could potentially be avoided. For this reason alone, it is wise to have a gun trust own legal title to ALL of your firearms, even if you NEVER intend to purchase a NFA firearm that has to be registered with the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF).