OK, so I have my trust as of today.
Signed and notarized, ready to go.

If I am ordering a suppressor from Silencershop, do I need to scan the notarized signature page, add it to the other pages of the trust, and then e-mail all of it plus the (currently blank) Schedule A to them?

Thanks for your help!

The Schedule A should have something listed on it prior to submitting it to the ATF, even it's just "$5 held by the Grantor". It could literally be anything, just needs to be something listed.

Okay, so you have the "original/signed/notarized" version of your trust - take that and scan the whole thing. Save it to your computer, a flash drive and perhaps in the cloud - you can never be too careful with an important document like that. Take the original and put it someplace extremely safe - your gun safe, your bank safe deposit box - somewhere that is secured from fire and will be easy for someone to find in the event of your untimely demise.

When you have that scanned document, yes - you'll upload it to SilencerShop.com during the process of purchasing something - I forget exactly when they ask you to do it...but it's definitely part of the process.

Finally, I'd like to highlight something:



This is correct. I am not an attorney (nor do I play one on TV) but I've done a metric fuck-ton of research on the topic of NFA trusts and I'd like to draw your attention to the RCWs that define a valid trust in WA: http://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=11.98.011

Without ANY assets in your trust, it is invalid by state law and the ATF would reject your Form 4. As NWRed suggested, you need to fund it - I use a $2 bill and list the serial number. That $2 goes into a hard-sided plastic case and then it's taped to the inside of the binder where the "original/signed/notarized" version of my trust lives.

My trust, back in the body of the text and NOT in Schedule A, says that it is initially funded with $10. I did not have anything listed on the Schedule A when I first submitted it, and didn't have any trouble.

I don't know shit about trusts, but it appears to me that the Schedule A is not the only place where you can fund the trust.

I have never filed a schedule A with any of my stamps. Always filled them in afterwards.

+1 schedule A was blank when I efiled my form 1 SBR. ATF approved it without a hiccup.

Thanks all, questions answered!

Good for you guys - but the ATF should have rejected your trusts without proof that they had assets.

Who says they didn't have assets?

Maybe they're funded on a different page . . . like mine is.

Or maybe they're not.

Same here.

So if your trust isn't funded elsewhere on the document (like Madpick's and mine) then as a trust it's invalid, because it lacks assets. Correct? Then you write in $10 on the schedule A, but you can't transfer assets to an invalid trust. So unless your trust is funded in the wording of the trust you technically have an invalid trust. It's a circular argument that doesn't make any sense.

If that makes any sense.

Who said you cant transfer assets to a trust? You may not be able to have ATF approve transferring an NFA weapon to a legally flawed Trust/LLC/Corp, but as the Grantor can add assets at any time you see fit.

It's validated once it has assets, either listed in the Declaration or the Certification or listed on the Schedule A ( provided your Trust has a Sched A). If you have NOTHING on your schedule A or listed in the formation documents when you send in your Form1/Form4, technically it may not be valid.

Has that stopped ATF from approving them form ? Yes it has. Has it stopped all Trusts from filing Form1/Form4s ? Nope. Luck of the draw on how closely the legal documents examiner reads or cares. In theory the Trust paid for the item you're attempting to manufacture or transfer, which could be considered an asset not listed on the Schedule A. As a general rule, your Trust/Corp/LLC documents need to be valid for the stamp to be approved. They don't have to make sense in regard to distribution of benefits, or Corp governance (what exactly is your cat going to do with 3 suppressors and an SBR when you die? Why are your annual meetings 30 seconds long on Jan. 1st at 12:01AM? etc) , which seems to be a hangup for some folks.

Not all Trusts have a Schedule A, or Schedule B for that matter. It would depend entirely how the Trust is written, but as I understand it, a trust is required to hold some asset in Trust for the beneficiary. It can literally be ANYTHING. Why not just write something in it prior to submitting it for arbitrary scrutiny by the ATF?

This.

I understand that not all trusts will have a Schedule A or B or Exhibit 1, 2, 3 - or whatever...but the RCWs require your trust to have assets (listed somewhere in the trust) to be considered valid by state law and that is what the NFA examiners look for. Some of them are sloppy and miss it and some of them are careful and will reject you for it. Your choice.

My understanding was that you list your NFA assets as part of Schedule A, but don't have to put down the value of those items. Am I missing something? Every time I get something new, I add that to my Schedule A and use that the next time. I have never listed a dollar amount and haven't had a problem.