Asset Titling Inventory

# Asset Titling Inventory

Turns statements, deeds, beneficiary forms and intake notes into one table showing how every asset will actually pass at death, for an estate planning attorney funding a trust or checking a plan against reality.

## What to ask for
- The client's estate documents (will, trust and amendments, schedule of trust assets) or a summary of the plan's intended dispositions.
- Asset evidence: recorded deeds, account statements (first page showing the registration line), beneficiary designation forms or confirmations, life insurance policies, business entity documents, vehicle titles, assignments of tangible property.
- The client's state of residence and marital status, and the state where each piece of real property sits.
- If evidence for an asset is missing, list the asset anyway from the intake notes and mark the titling as [MISSING: registration / deed / beneficiary form]. Never infer titling from the asset type alone.

## How to work
1. **List every asset.** One row per account, parcel, policy, entity interest or titled item. Pull from all sources and dedupe. Include digital assets, receivables, notes owed to the client, and interests in another person's trust or estate.
2. **Record titling exactly as shown.** Copy the registration line or vesting language (e.g. "John and Mary Doe, JTWROS", "Jane Doe, Trustee of the Doe Living Trust dated ...", "TOD to ..."). Note the document and date it came from.
3. **Classify how it passes.** Trust (titled in trustee's name or assigned to trust); survivorship (joint tenancy, tenancy by the entirety, community property with right of survivorship); beneficiary designation (retirement accounts, life insurance, annuities, POD/TOD, transfer-on-death deed); probate (sole name, tenancy in common share, no surviving beneficiary, estate named as beneficiary).
4. **Check designations behind the titling.** For each beneficiary asset: primary and contingent named, whether the trust or estate is named, whether a named beneficiary is a minor, deceased, an ex-spouse, or on means-tested benefits. Note per stirpes / per capita if the form says.
5. **Flag funding needs.** Any asset the plan expects in the trust but still titled outside it. Note the likely funding method for the attorney to choose (new deed, account re-registration, assignment, beneficiary change) without choosing it.
6. **Flag conflicts with the plan.** Joint titling or designations that send an asset to someone other than the plan's beneficiary; designations that bypass a special needs or minor's trust; unequal shares created by titling; an ex-spouse still named; a joint owner who is a child "for convenience".
7. **Flag special-handling assets.** Retirement accounts (trust as beneficiary raises distribution-rule questions); out-of-state real property (ancillary probate if not in trust); community vs. separate property characterization; entity interests with transfer restrictions in an operating or shareholder agreement; real property with a mortgage (due-on-sale and title insurance questions on transfer); property-tax reassessment or homestead effects of a deed; firearms and other items with transfer rules.
8. **Totals.** If values are given, subtotal by passing method so the attorney sees how much is actually in probate.

## Output

**Asset Titling Inventory: [Client name(s)]**  Prepared: [date]  Plan reviewed: [document names and dates]

1. **Snapshot** (3 lines): number of assets, how many pass outside probate, how many need action.
2. **Inventory** table: # | Asset | Approx. value | Titled as (exact) | Source & date | Passes by | Beneficiary / successor | Matches plan? (Yes / No / [MISSING])
3. **Funding needed** table: Asset | Current titling | Plan expects | Possible method | Notes
4. **Conflicts between titling and the plan** (bullets, most significant first; "None noted" if none)
5. **Special-handling assets** (bullets with the reason)
6. **Totals by passing method** (Trust | Survivorship | Beneficiary designation | Probate | Unknown), only if values are given
7. **Documents still needed** (numbered, from the [MISSING] items)
8. **To verify** (e.g. whether the state allows transfer-on-death deeds or TOD vehicle titles, small-estate thresholds, community property rules, reassessment or homestead effects of a transfer, current retirement-account distribution rules for trusts)

## Rules
- Draft for attorney review; not legal advice and not a funding instruction to the client.
- State thresholds, transfer-on-death availability, tax and reassessment rules vary by jurisdiction and change: list them under "To verify" with what to check, never state them as final.
- Never invent values, dates, titling or beneficiaries. Unknown = [MISSING].
- Titling comes only from a document; the client's belief about titling is noted as "per client" and kept separate.
- Don't recommend retitling or changing a designation; name the issue and leave the choice to the attorney.
- Mask account and policy numbers to the last four digits.