Has your tax or financial advisor asked you for your trust tax ID number? If so — and before you stress about finding the number — watch our latest video. Estate planning and probate attorney Sarah Siedentopf explains where to find it.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:

Hi, I’m attorney Sarah Siedentopf. I’m an estate planning and probate attorney in Atlanta, Georgia. So you’ve just created a trust and then someone, maybe your tax advisor or your financial advisor, asks you “what is the tax ID number of your trust?” and you’re panicking because you have no idea. You don’t remember this being discussed. Don’t worry. Most of the time if it is your trust, particularly your revocable living trust, there is a clause very near the front of your trust that says that the tax ID number of the trust is your social security number. If that’s not true, if the trust does not say that it’s your social security number, then you or the person who put together your trust, will have had to have filed for a tax ID number. It’s a quick and easy process, but you’ll want to check with whoever put together your trust to see whether they did it. Presumably, if they did do it, they will have given you a copy of that letter. But most of the time, if this issue hasn’t ever occurred to you before, you’re going to realize that the tax ID number is, in fact, your social security number and then after you pass away is when the next trustee of the trust would actually file for that tax ID number. So, most of the time it’s going to be your social security number. If you look at the trust and that’s not what it says, ask the person who drafted it. If you’ve got questions about this, please let me know. Thanks.