Is It Possible To Transfer Assets To A New Trust Without Telling The Old Trustee?

Is it possible to transfer assets from an old Trust into a new trust without telling the Trustee?  When Trust assets are titled in the name of the Trustee he or she becomes the legal owner of those assets.  Technically because the Trustee is the legal owner of the Trust assets he or she has to be the one to transfer those assets into another Trust. It is sometimes possible for a Settlor to transfer assets out of a Trust without telling the Trustee if the terms of the Trust permits the Settlor to do it and the assets were not held in the Trust to begin with.  Whether a Settlor can do this usually depends on the Terms of the Trust itself. 

See Now You See It, Now You Don’t: Can Assets Be Transferred To A New Trustee Without Telling The Old Trustee?, Wealth Management, October 15, 2015.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse for bringing this article to my attention.