Gun Trust

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Keeperfaith

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Hello, I've been thinking about getting a gun trust from my local gun shop. They charge $250 and its actually an out of city attorney who drafts it based on the information you provide them.

However I've seen advertisments on-line for gun trusts at a cheaper price. One of these is GUN TRUST DEPOT.com.

Has anyone here used GUN TRUST DEPOT and if so are they worth the money to provide a gun trust to purchase NFA weapons/items. And if not, can anyone recommend an online gun trust creator that is reputable.

Thanks

Steve

PS: another question along these lines: Once I have a trust and I want to build a short barreled AR. How do I do that? Send the trust and NFA form to the ATF with the $200 tax stamp fee, wait and once it's approved...I can then put a short barreled upper on a lower?? Or is there a different process?
 
I used arsenal attorneys for my trust. They answered all the questions I had when I ordered, and I'm happy with the document itself.
 
I recommend having your trust drafted by an actual attorney, that you can speak to, who is licensed to practice law in your state, and who knows a thing or two about NFA firearms. It's worth looking around to find that. And many of us are reasonably priced, so it shouldn't cost you more than the gun shop is quoting you.

Aaron
 
^^^ This. If you're going to play with expensive toys that can have serious drawbacks if paperwork isn't correct, you need to spend a few bucks to have someone knowledgeable in the field handle your paperwork.

I have needed to go back to my attorney a couple of times with questions about moving and I can tell you it was worth every penny I spent. Don't scrimp on important things.
 
I bought a will & trust program (advertised as good in all 50 states) from Best Buy in 2006 for $10 ... since then I've gotten stamps for several SBR's, suppressors an M-16 & HK registered sear with no problems ... You don't need an attorney to file much of any legal document, in fact their secretaries do most of the "work" unless it goes to court. My cousin who is an attorney and does wills & trusts looked it over and said this program could put an end to that part of his practice if people used them.
 
We had a pre-paid legal plan at work, used its attorney to do my NFA Trust, medical power of attorney, wills, etc. Nice benefit for the cost, given the prices being quoted for NFA Trusts.

It was comforting to have an actual attorney when my third form was rejected for a typo in the Trust that the first two examiners either missed or ignored. Although one could argue there shouldn't be any typos in a document done by an attorney.
 
NOLO.com cost me $40, I have had 7 stmaps approved on it in about 3 years. AND actually it ended up being free. I bought the digital download through amazon. It specifically said I could change the trust's name later on. I accidently named it my full name revocable living trust and tried to go back and change it to my initials or last name and it would not let me. Customer service said they did not have the ability to do it. I wrote amazon about my complaint with their claim that I could and they refunded me for the cost. So essentially I paid about $15 to have it notarized, only becuase my bank who notarizes for free won't notarize trusts or wills...unless youy pay them to prepare it.

The only downside to my free trust is you can only make changes to it for a year. NO problem, I downloaded it as a PDF then converted it into an editable word document. Oh and of course anytime I build an SBR on a form 1 my trust's name is this EXACT amount of characters: It has not been a major issue yet...yet.

XXXXXX XXXXXXX XXX REVOCABLE LIVING TRUST
XXXCITYXX, ST



Guess what... NOLO used a lawyer to write the script and then plugs in information. A lawyer charging 50X that amount is NOT writing it from scratch each and everytime. he uses a template, likely one he got from a law professor or lawyer before him and is plugging and playing. AND like someone else said, For $200-250 or whatever someone above this comment said he paid, you are NOT getting more than 20 minutes of a lawyers time. That is being prepared, handled, gathered and executed by a paralegal, andn intern in college to be a lawyer or a well trained secretary.
 
another question along these lines: Once I have a trust and I want to build a short barreled AR. How do I do that? Send the trust and NFA form to the ATF with the $200 tax stamp fee, wait and once it's approved...I can then put a short barreled upper on a lower?? Or is there a different process?
Click to expand...

Get the trust, complete the form 1, send it in WITH the trust and wait for the approval. Once it comes back you add it as property of your trust and slap your pistol upper on your lower.
 
I'd go with one of the law groups that produce Trusts. That's what I did and it cost slightly less than a C-Note, they provided a good trust, and promptly answered follow up questions. Considering the cost of NFA toys, its hardly a real concern.
 
I've been reading about the bank account portion of this. Most people are opening a separate bank account. Is it possible, instead, to simply add the trust as an account holder onto your current account?
 
Armymutt said:
I've been reading about the bank account portion of this. Most people are opening a separate bank account. Is it possible, instead, to simply add the trust as an account holder onto your current account?
Click to expand...
You should ask this of your bank, the preparer of your trust, or an attorney familiar with NFA trusts in your state.

I wouldn't even consider a bank account for my trust, but that's me.
 
How do you purchase items? From what I've read, the trust must purchase items. Granted, it's a paperwork circle, but given the current administration and their followers, I could see the potential for trouble down the line.
 
Trusts are a state thing and not all trusts are identical. The attorney that drafted mine told me I do not need an account, I can purchase items with my own money, and I do not need an "assignment of property" for NFA items, as the Form 1 or Form 4 serves that purpose. He did advise me to document any non-NFA items I put in the trust, but I never plan to do that.

But that applies to me, not you. You are bound by the terms of your trust and state law.

It's being discussed in this thread as well.
 
A lawyer charging 50X that amount is NOT writing it from scratch each and everytime. he uses a template, likely one he got from a law professor or lawyer before him and is plugging and playing.
Click to expand...

Almost all lawyers use a template for all of their legal forms. And while lawyers and law professors do trade around their templates, most lawyers invest quite a bit of time and research into their templates to make sure they have a good, solid product. I've got over a week of solid billable time into developing the template I use for gun trusts. At $250 each, I'd need around 100 clients before I even broke even on time and effort.

And that is how it should be, because the last thing you want is for an attorney to draft every document he does for you from scratch at $200 an hour. If it were not for the use of templates, nobody would be able to offer a gun trust at anything near an affordable price. And while plug and play sounds effortless, knowing what plug goes where in order to make it play is the real reason you are paying an attorney.

AND like someone else said, For $200-250 or whatever someone above this comment said he paid, you are NOT getting more than 20 minutes of a lawyers time. That is being prepared, handled, gathered and executed by a paralegal, andn intern in college to be a lawyer or a well trained secretary.
Click to expand...

Actually, for $250, I would expect to meet with my clients for about an hour, discuss their specific needs and situation and I would absolutely draft the document myself. In fact, my forms are drafted so that even another lawyer would need to spend some time studying them and becoming familiar with them before they would be able to modify them. I spent a lot of my time drafting it. I don't really relish the thought of some guy on the Internet sharing it for free, so modifying them can be tricky and not something I would want a paralegal or secretary doing.

However, there is a wide range of trust products out there. A computer generated DIY form trust isn't the same as an attorney-drafted trust. Both will get you your NFA items approved; but by necessity, the form trust is going to have to be a very general "one-size-fits-all" type of answer. I went into more detail on the subject in this thread: http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=719848
 
Im also looking for a good online gun trust maker.

I found you while looking for more information about gun trust depot and I was wondering if you ended up using them or not. I need a trust that will work for buying a new suppressor in wyoming.
 
If you would at least post in which state you live (in your profile?), you'll probably get more responses?

Fer myself, living in VA, I used John Pierce - I also sent him a couple of my friends, and we've all been satisfied with his work, knowledge, and response time.
I've seen some questionable stuff on some of the NFA Trust lawyer sites I visited when researching.

He charges a flat $100 fee, and everything can be handled over the 'Net / by e-mail.

His page is also a wealth of info regarding gun issues / laws.

BUT...iff'n you don't live in VA...nevermind...
 
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