Most trusts, including the Living Trust, are statutory, meaning that they are based on the statutes, rules, and regulations of the government. The government is, in effect, a party to the statutory trust contract with the power to change the rules anytime they want. Also, most statutory trusts are set up so that lawyers are required to set everything up and, in most cases, lawyers will have to be consulted in order to do anything related to the trust. In many cases, the trusts do not do what they are advertised to do since the trust rules change on the death of the beneficiary. For example, a Living Trust becomes a part of the estate on the death of the beneficiary in most states and even becomes subject to federal inheritance taxes if the assets of the trust exceed, currently, $600,000. None of this applies to the Pure Contract Trust since it is formed under Common Law of the united States of America and is not subject to the government's rules and regulations.
Copyright at Common Law, West El Paso Information Network, 1997