NFA Gun Trust Lawyer Blog
Joshua Prince a 3rd year law student has written an article on the BATFE approving an invalid trust. Apparently an individual on Silencertalk.com received back two approved Form 1’s and on the back of one of his forms it stated “Consult counsel w/ the filing of your trust, proves to be invalid”
There have been several articles on why Quicken should not be used for creating a trust including an article by Mr. Prince which applies PA law to some factors I found as well as Using Quicken to prepare a trust: The good, the bad, and ugly!
Josh contemplates that while the trust is invalid no transfer can take place and the the assets in the trust could be subject to a forfeiture action and anyone in possession could be subject to criminal charges for invalidly being in possession of a Title II firearm without properly transferring the firearm.
This is not the first invalid Quicken and Legal Zoom trust that I have heard of. I have reviewed and modified many trusts that individuals have attempted to create on their own using canned software or generic forms. Many of these trusts do not achieve the desired results and almost half of the trusts I have reviewed are invalid because of technical flaws contained within the trust.
Under these circumstances Mr. Prince and I both would recommend that no transfer Form 1 or Form 4 take place to an invalid trust. Josh suggested and I would agree that the transfer should be voided, the trust amended to a valid state, and then the trust should reapply for the transfer properly.
If you have a trust that is being used for NFA purposes and you would like it reviewed for validity contact a Gun Trust Lawyer®.