We often get asked if one should put all of their firearms in a Gun Trust or not? Like most legal questions the answer is usually “it depends”. All of our Gun Trusts are designed to hold all of your firearms and any real gun trust should be designed for all of your firearms.
With that being said we have seen many documents marketed as gun trusts or NFA gun trusts that are not really designed for NFA much less any firearm. Some which appear to be designed for firearms strictly limit the property or assets that they can hold to NFA firearms.
This is a mistake and any trust you use to hold firearms should be designed to hold all types of firearms, ammunition, and other firearms related items like scopes or optics.
If you think about it, the same decision-making process goes into the determination of whether a beneficiary ( example spouse, child, parent, friend) is appropriate for the gift of a Glock as a Machine gun or silencer.
It is not enough to vaguely mention firearms, guns or the NFA in the trust but every provision should be re-written to deal with firearms and not other types of property like a home, stock account, or car. You will not cause someone to break the law if you give them a bank account, but might do so with a gun.
Things to look for in a Gun Trust Lawyer®:
1) do they own guns and support 2A activities and rights?
2) Do they use the right terms and language? Someone who talks about Class 3 firearms or whose documents refer to them does not understand enough about the NFA to know the difference between the licences required to sell Title II firearms and the items that can be sold.
3) Are they primarily interested in selling you other legal services and using the concept of a gun trust to create a contact or sell other services?
4) Do they have support behind them?
5) Will your trust be valid if you move to another state?
6) Does you trust support authorized users in other states?
7) Can you Gun Trust be upgraded to provide multi generational and or asset protect without loss of your initial investment?
8) How much experience with Gun Trusts do they have?
9) Do they have both Criminal Law lawyers and estate planning lawyers who are familiar with the NFA and ATF?
10) Do they include unlimited support for the life of your involvement with the Gun Trust at no additional charge?
11) Do they have a comprehensive manual that covers all aspects of NFA firearms ownership, transfer, possession at no additional charge?
12) Do they write regularly on the NFA, changes with the ATF, and common issues that arise with the use, transfer, purchase, and possession of TItle II firearms?
Our network of Gun Trust Lawyers® does all of the above and you can tell if you are purchasing a Gun Trust from a lawyer we work with or whom has licensed our trusts by checking for our copyright on the trust you receive.
If you would like to know more about what a real Gun Trust Is? or What are the Benefits of a Gun Trust? Contact Us by using the form on this page, or by calling us.
We have over 200 lawyers in 43 states that we have worked with to create over 5000 Gun Trusts since we created the first trust gun trust. If you would like help contacting a Gun Trust Lawyer in your state, call or email us. Please note that the process is generally stated in our office as the federal issues are more complex than the minor state specific issues. Our support comes with both help on the state specific issues relating to trusts and firearms and the federal issues relating to the NFA and other firearms ownership transfer and possession.