Is your home or rental property titled in the name of your trust? You need to make sure it’s insured properly to avoid any issues in the event of a claim.

Does the trustee live in or out of the home? This is the first question you need to answer as it determines if the insurance policy should be a homeowners (owner occupied) or a landlord (tenant occupied) policy.

Trustee or Grantor lives in the home

If the Trustee or Grantor lives inside the home, great, it can be written as a standard owner occupied homeowners policy, with the Trustee/Grantor listed as named insured and the Trust listed as additional insured (or vice versa – it depends on the insurance company).

Trustee or Grantor lives out of the home

If you are the trustee or Grantor and you rent the property out to tenants, it can be written as a landlord policy and you would be the named insured with the trust listed as additional insured.

Trustee is a professional fiduciary

It can get complicated if you are using a professional fiduciary as your trustee. You might assume that if you are living in your own home, it would be an owner occupied homeowners policy; while that is usually the case, if your home is in a trust and you hired a fiduciary to be your trustee, it would actually be written as a landlord policy with the fiduciary (trustee) as the named insured and the trust as additional insured. You would also need a renters policy to protect your own personal property within the home. If you are the Grantor of the trust and you live in the home, then you can still write the policy as a standard homeowners policy.

As always, consult with your insurance agent to give you the best advice for any situation, they will also know the guidelines for how your specific insurance company wants it handled. We are always happy to help here at Pappazi Insurance Agency if you have any questions.