Trust Funding Services

Make Sure Your Trust Actually Works

A trust that is not funded does not work. We retitle the land, equipment, and accounts so the plan you paid for actually protects you.

Get Your Trust Funded

No obligation. No hourly billing. Tell us a bit about your trust and we will reach out.

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100% Confidential. Flat-fee pricing.

A Trust That Isn’t Funded Is Just Expensive Paper

Here is one of the most common — and most costly — mistakes in estate planning: a family pays an attorney a meaningful fee to draft a beautiful Revocable Living Trust. The documents are signed, notarized, and placed in a drawer. Everyone feels good.

Then the patriarch dies. And the family discovers that the land is still titled in his personal name. The bank accounts are still in his name. The LLC membership interests were never transferred. The trust controls nothing, because nobody ever funded it.

The result? Full probate — the exact thing the trust was supposed to prevent.

At Midwest Ag Law, trust funding is not an add-on. It is a core part of every estate plan we build. We handle the deeds, the bank paperwork, the beneficiary designation changes, and the entity membership transfers. When we’re done, your trust actually controls your assets.

priority_highThe Critical Difference

Unfunded Trust Trust document exists but assets are still in your personal name. Result: full probate. Trust was pointless.
Funded Trust Land, accounts, and entities are retitled into the trust. Result: no probate, immediate succession, protected legacy.
Kole reviewing property deeds and county maps for trust funding

What Trust Funding Actually Involves

Trust funding is the process of changing legal ownership of your assets from your personal name to the name of your trust. For a farm family, this typically includes:

  • Recording new deeds for all farmland parcels
  • Updating bank account titles and beneficiary designations
  • Transferring LLC membership interests
  • Updating vehicle titles where applicable
  • Reassigning life insurance and retirement account beneficiaries

We handle all of this for you. Most clients don’t lift a finger beyond signing a few forms. The process typically takes 2-4 weeks after documents are signed.

The Midwest Ag Law Process

We don’t do hourly billing, and we don’t hand you a stack of paper and wish you luck. Our process is designed to be transparent, thorough, and completely finished when we’re done.

1

Asset Inventory

We compile a complete list of every asset that needs to be funded into the trust — every parcel, every account, every entity, every beneficiary designation.

2

Document Preparation

We prepare trustee deeds for every parcel of land, assignment documents for LLC interests, and retitling paperwork for bank accounts and financial institutions.

3

Recording & Filing

We record the deeds with the county register of deeds, submit paperwork to banks and financial institutions, and confirm every asset has been properly retitled.

Assets We Fund Into Your Trust

Every asset that should be in your trust — will be in your trust.

landscape

Farmland & Real Estate

We prepare and record new deeds transferring every parcel into the trust. This includes farmland in multiple counties and states.

account_balance

Bank Accounts & CDs

We coordinate with your bank to retitle checking, savings, and certificate accounts into the trust name.

business

LLCs & Business Entities

We amend operating agreements and transfer membership interests so your business entities are properly owned by the trust.

What Our Clients Say
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Sandramere Seed & Supply Co. profile picture
Sandramere Seed & Supply Co.
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Kole helped us develop HR documents and create some customer forms for our business. Kole really helps put legal language in understandable form. We really appreciate his thorough nature and ability to ask the right questions to uncover issues we had not considered. His agricultural knowledge is extremely valuable. Thanks Kole! We really appreciate you!
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James Jensen profile picture
James Jensen
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Working with Kole was easy and convenient. He answered all our questions and helped us get our trust established quickly.
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Brandon Boardman profile picture
Brandon Boardman
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Kole's personal experience and understanding in agriculture makes him a great attorney for all of your farms estate planning. He's very prompt, professional and he really cares about your needs. What a great guy.
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Mary Mollenhauer profile picture
Mary Mollenhauer
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Working with this firm feels less like hiring a lawyer and more like bringing on a strategic partner for your legacy. They truly understand the complexity of multi-generational farming operations and approach every plan with both precision and long-term vision. For families managing significant agricultural assets, this is exactly the kind of counsel you want in your corner.
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Mitch Mender profile picture
Mitch Mender
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Kole is a bright and compassionate attorney. He knows what he is doing!
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Pooja Vasudev profile picture
Pooja Vasudev
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Kole Pederson walks the walk and talks the talk! As a former aerial applicator, he has fully lived the agricultural life so he is qualified to assist farmers, ranchers, and agricultural business owners with their estate planning/probate, business law, and real estate legal needs. Kole is diligent, resilient, and down to earth with a genuine commitment to help clients. In this day and age, when everything has become less tangible and very technological - Kole is the kind of attorney agricultural folks can benefit from having on their side!
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Matt Snoberger profile picture
Matt Snoberger
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Kole was easy to work with and has vast knowledge of agriculture and a lot of common sense. One of the easiest people I’ve ever worked with.
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Flynn Baker profile picture
Flynn Baker
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I have worked with Kole on a legislative and policy committee for a non profit organization. Kole's input was incredibly valuable; especially navigating legal jargon and procedures as well as his attention to detail and timeliness. I am glad to have worked with him and trust his recommendations and actions in legal matters.
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Becky profile picture
Becky
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I was doing an online search for an attorney and ran across Midwest Ag Law. I called and Mr. Pederson actually answered the phone himself, which Never happens these days! Unfortunately, he doesn't do Guardianship cases, but was very kind and went out of his way to give me some referrals!
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Curt Friesen profile picture
Curt Friesen
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Legal work made simple. Very professional firm that delivered everything I needed, when I needed it, and at a reasonable price. Great to work with and will use them again.
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Frequently Asked Questions

Why don’t most attorneys fund the trust?expand_more
Because it’s time-consuming, detail-oriented work that doesn’t generate additional hourly billing at the same rate as document drafting. Many firms sign the trust and hand you a sheet of instructions to “fund it yourself.” We don’t do that.
Will funding my trust affect my taxes?expand_more
No. A Revocable Living Trust uses your same Social Security number. There is no separate tax return, no gift tax, and no change in property tax treatment. From the IRS perspective, nothing changes while you’re alive.
What if I buy new land after the trust is funded?expand_more
Any new acquisitions need to be titled in the trust name at the time of purchase. We advise our clients on this and can prepare the necessary documents when new assets are acquired.
Can you fund a trust that was drafted by another attorney?expand_more
Yes. If you have an existing trust that was never funded, we can review it and handle the funding process. We do this regularly for clients who received a trust document but were never given the follow-through.

Make Sure Your Trust Actually Works

If you already have a trust, we can review it and confirm it’s properly funded. If it’s not, we’ll fix it. Schedule a free consultation.