What does it mean to fund a trust, and why do people forget this step?

Funding a trust means retitling your assets into the trust's name — changing the deed on your house, renaming brokerage and bank accounts, and updating ownership so the trust legally holds them. This is the step people skip, and it's the one that makes a trust work. An unfunded trust is just paper: if your home is still titled in your own name when you die, it goes through probate anyway, defeating the trust's main purpose. After signing the trust, you (or your attorney) must move each asset in, one by one, and keep doing it as you acquire new assets. Retirement accounts are usually left out and handled via beneficiary designations instead, for tax reasons. A pour-over will catches anything you forgot. Set a reminder to review funding whenever you buy property or open a new account, so nothing slips out.