Totten trust

Origin

The name is derived from Matter of Totten, 179 N.Y. 112 (1904), the case decided by the New York Court of Appeals which established the legality of this practice. Although this method of creating a trust did not meet the formal requirements of trust creation, or the testamentary formalities required to make a valid will, the Court noted that such an arrangement typically involved a small amount of money left by a person of modest means, who could not otherwise afford to establish a legal mechanism for passing the specified property. For this reason, the device is sometimes called a "poor man's will". The funds in question are not subject to probate and, if held in a bank account, are insured in the same manner as any deposit. The beneficiary has no access to the account until the depositor's death and need not be notified that the account exists. This is also called a tentative trust because it is contingent upon the death of the settlor or creator of the trust account.