# US Citizen with Revocable Trust



## nrlaurin

I have been reading about the reporting required of a US citizen who resides in France, when they are a settlor/trustee of a revocable trust. Obviously, the revocable trust is a preferred estate plan in the US for many people for its ease of application in the US. But, clearly, France's reporting requirements might be difficult enough to inspire changes to such a plan when a US citizen moves to France, as I will soon be doing.

Have any of you made changes to your US estate/trust plan upon moving to France because of this trust-reporting issue? I would love to know whether you found the reporting requirements particularly difficult, whether you hired assistance in France to file them, and/or whether you modified your plan away from a trust model in order to avoid the reporting issues.

PS My question isn't one about inheritance/gift taxes, but merely about the trust reporting requirements for French residents.


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## jweihl

Also interested in this subject. We created a revocable trust shortly before moving to France. At the moment it contains the proceeds from the sale of our home in the US, and I'm curious to know what France needs to know about it.


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## jweihl

I did see this article. I'm guessing that since I have no french assets (property), nor are any listed beneficiaries french residents, that I need not report it. 



https://www.daypitney.com/~/media/files/insights/publications/2018/whitaker-trusts_estates-article-5_14_18.pdf?la=en


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## nrlaurin

jweihl said:


> I did see this article. I'm guessing that since I have no french assets (property), nor are any listed beneficiaries french residents, that I need not report it.
> 
> 
> 
> https://www.daypitney.com/~/media/files/insights/publications/2018/whitaker-trusts_estates-article-5_14_18.pdf?la=en


BUT SEE:


https://debankers.com/Assets/2017%20DTC%20Tuesday/Wheel%20of%20Fortune/CHR%2005a%20Wheel%20of%20Fortune%20-%20Whitaker.pdf



The slides on pages 12-13 of this link, seems to say that reporting requirements kick in immediately once a US citizen becomes a french resident, no matter where the trust assets or beneficiaries are located worldwide.... this is why I'm concerned (my trust assets and beneficiaries are all located in the US)..


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## Bevdeforges

I think you may need to consider exactly what is the object to your revocable trust. Are you establishing a trust in order to pass your assets to your children/grandchilden/someone else - or are you dealing with a trust where you are the beneficiary to some extent?

I know my parent set up a trust to hold their assets, thinking that it would avoid various inheritance issues, whereas, in fact, the trust simply complicated things beyond all comprehension and ultimately I had to abandon certain assets that were simply not worth the time and expense of pursuing them after the deaths of my parents.

Real estate located in the US can probably be handled via a trust document, but as far as other financial assets are concerned, you may be just screwing thing up beyond all recognition by stashing your stuff in a trust of any sort.


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## jweihl

I think Bev has a point. We have a revocable trust and they are definitely used to pass US real estate property to ones heirs without having it pass through probate. It's particularly useful when there might be multiple heirs and quick-claiming the property to them would be problematic. Most other US financial instruments have the ability to be co-owned, or have payable on death beneficiaries, which essentially takes those out of probate. Much easier to use those mechanisms than to put them in trust.


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