A trust is a private document and typically doesn’t have to be filed with a court or any other government agency. This is Michael Pevney. I create estate plans for California families. Ask an estate planning question in the comments and share this video if somebody doesn’t have a trust or an estate plan set up. So the question here, how is the trust established? A trust is basically a contract between you and yourself. When you initially set it up, it says what you want to happen to your stuff, both while you’re alive and then once you pass away. And we also have to fund the trust in order to make it effective. We have to put things inside of that trust. Then when you pass away, things completely bypass court and don’t have to go through the entire probate system, which is both time consuming and, in California, very expensive. Around 55 0 $50,000 for to get an average sort of home through probate. So it is a private document. We have to make sure it is protected, that people know where it is, because it is again, not filed with the court. So keep the documents safe. Make sure that people know where things are at the right time.