Let's say someone only had one item in their trust.

If they wanted to sell that one item to someone else, could they simply sell the trust to them? Then edit the trust to assign it to the new owner, and thereby transfer the NFA items without a new stamp?

My guess: You set up the trust originally with trustees and successor trustees named. Your beneficiary is named in the trust. To sell the trust you would have to name that new person as a trustee. As such I would think you would have to file that new trust including a copy of the original form 1 or form 4 with the ATF. In return they may ask for the fingerprints and picture of the new trustee since the reg has changed.

Maybe you could just name the potential buyer as beneficiary and then just die?



Seriously though, I'm not certain you can sell a trust as you would a corporation.

The settlor and grantor would not change. It seems to me like an end run around the transfer laws... Almost like a straw buy.

From the buyer's perspective, I would guess the original owner would retain some control over the trust and I don't think I would personally like that.

I would think the new rule (41F)would make the new owner file fingerprints and mugshot.

There is no ongoing requirement to notify the ATF of new trustees and submit prints and photos of trustees are added. The only requirement is that all responsible parties are printed and photographed when a form 1 or 4 is submitted.

I think that since it is a revocable trust, all you need to do is revoke this trust and make a completely new trust using the same trust name, but all the parties in the trust would be the new owner.

Why not sell the gun outright and be done with it, no more connection to it. If you're not going to use the trust any more, just let it lapse. Are you trying to get the money back you paid into the trust??? Adding a new person, turning the trust over to them, etc sure looks like a lot of contortions. It also looks obvious that you're trying to beat the stamp cost.