If you already have a living trust or family/marital trust and you want to update it, the best way to do this is by a restatement. A restatement allows you to “republish” your trust and replace the original trust, thus updating the entire document, including your distribution plan and naming your trustee, but without creating a whole new trust. Also with a restatement, all assets currently titled in your trust stay exactly the way they are (no need to re-title existing trust assets, like your house). With an amendment, you only update one part of your trust but the original trust document stays in place. The biggest advantage to a restatement over an amendment is that when it comes time to administer your trust, your beneficiaries and heirs only see the most current restatement. With an amendment, your beneficiaries and heirs see the original trust document and all subsequent amendments, so if you treated them differently in the amendment, they will know it. A restatement protects your privacy and avoids the unpleasant disclosure to beneficiaries of changes in your distribution plan.
