Trust Account Styling

Question:

Our credit union has always opened trust accounts and allowed the trust to be listed with the trustee's social security number if a TIN was not assigned. Someone now told us we should let the ownership only reflect the trustee's with their respective SSNs if we have no tax ID number. Is this true?

Answer:

I'm not certain I understand, but will review the basics and hope you find your answer there. An SSN is a Social Security number. An EIN is an employer identification number. Both are referred to as taxpayer identification numbers or TINs.

A grantor trust, one that is revocable by the person who established it, can use either the SSN of the grantor or a unique EIN assigned to the trust. The choice is the grantor's, not the financial institution's.

An account opened for a grantor trust must reflect the name of the trust in the account title. That is true regardless of which type of number is employed.

First published on BankersOnline.com 9/07/09