By Chuck Roulet, Attorney · Licensed in Florida and Minnesota
In August of 2017, a man in Orr, Minnesota signed a deed. It said that when he died, his house would go to his niece.
Four days later, he died.
Six days after that, his ex-wife set the house on fire.
He had homeowner's insurance, so his niece filed a claim. The insurance company paid for the things inside the house. But it refused to pay for the house itself. She sued, and she lost. A federal court of appeals agreed with the insurance company.
Why? Because insurance doesn't follow the house. It follows the person on the policy.
I'm Chuck Roulet. I've been an estate planning and elder law attorney for almost 30 years, and I'm licensed in both Florida and Minnesota. That case is the clearest example I know of the mistake I see most often when people put their home in a trust.
Do I Need to Add My Trust to My Homeowner's Insurance?
Yes. If your home is owned by your trust, your trust should be on your homeowner's insurance policy, and you should have that in writing.
When you put your home in a trust, you sign a new deed. The owner of your house changes. It's no longer you. It's your trust. But your insurance policy still has your name on it, not your trust's name.
Many insurance companies will keep covering a home in a revocable trust when the person who made the trust still lives there, especially if they've been told about the trust. But you don't want to find out how your company handles it after a fire or a hurricane. If the owner on the deed doesn't match the name on the policy, your claim can be questioned, delayed or, in the worst case, denied.
The Case: Strope-Robinson v. State Farm
Here's what happened in the Minnesota case, Strope-Robinson v. State Farm Fire & Casualty Co., decided by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on February 5, 2021.
- August 10, 2017: David Strope signed a transfer on death deed leaving his house in Orr, Minnesota to his niece. It was recorded the next day.
- August 14, 2017: He died.
- August 20, 2017: His ex-wife intentionally set the house on fire.
State Farm paid the claim for the personal property inside the house. It denied the claim for the house itself and for loss of use. The niece sued. The trial court ruled for State Farm, and the Court of Appeals agreed.
The court's reasoning was simple. When the owner died, the deed made his niece the owner of the house. His estate no longer had any interest in it. And the niece wasn't on the policy. The court said a homeowner's policy is a personal contract between the insurance company and the person named on it. It doesn't automatically move with the house.
That case involved a transfer on death deed, not a trust. But the lesson is the same. Whenever the owner of your house changes, your insurance has to change with it.
Minnesota lawmakers took notice. In 2024, Minnesota changed its transfer on death deed law to give the person inheriting the house an insurable interest, required insurance warnings on transfer on death deeds signed on or after August 1, 2024, and required insurers to provide 30 days of temporary coverage after the owner's death. But that extra coverage only applies if the owner told the insurance company about the deed. The fix still starts with a phone call.
Mistake 1: Never Telling Your Insurance Company
The first mistake is simple. People put the house in the trust and never tell their insurance agent.
The fix is just as simple. Call your agent and say, "My house is now owned by my trust. Please add my trust to my policy." Depending on the company, your trust will be added as a named insured or an additional insured.
Then ask for it in writing. You want a new declarations page for your policy, or a letter, that shows your trust's name. Don't rely on a phone call. If there's ever a claim, paper wins.
And here's the part most people get backwards. Call your insurance company before the new deed is recorded, not after. That way there's never a single day when your house is owned by your trust but insured only in your name.
How Our Office Handles It
Some law firms record the new deed for their clients and never say a word about insurance. The deed gets recorded, the client goes home and no one calls the insurance company.
We do it differently. Our standard practice is to have our clients record the deed themselves, and only after they've updated their insurance. That way, the insurance step can't get skipped.
If a client would rather have us record the deed, we will. But only after they've called their insurance company, gotten the trust added to the policy and sent us written confirmation. Not before. Our rule: no deed is recorded until the insurance is updated, in writing.
If your home is already in a trust and no one ever told you this, it's not too late. If you're in Florida or Minnesota and aren't sure your trust is set up the right way, that's what we review in a consultation.
Mistake 2: Fixing One Policy and Forgetting the Others
The second mistake is fixing your home policy and forgetting the others. Most families have more than one.
Florida homeowners. After the last few hurricane seasons, many insurance companies raised their rates or left Florida. A lot of homeowners have had to switch companies, some more than once. Some are now with Citizens.
Every time you switch, you get a brand-new policy. The new company doesn't know your house is in a trust unless you tell it. So every time you change companies, tell them again.
Don't forget your flood insurance. In Florida, that's usually a separate policy, often from a separate company. Your flood policy needs your trust on it too. If you have a separate wind policy, the same goes for that one.
Minnesota homeowners. Many of my Minnesota clients have a cabin or a lake home, often in a different county and sometimes in Wisconsin, with a different insurance policy. If your trust owns the cabin, that policy needs your trust too. So does your umbrella policy, if you have one.
Snowbirds. If you split your year between Minnesota and Florida, tell both insurance companies that one home sits empty for part of the year. Many policies limit coverage when a home is empty for a long stretch. You don't want to learn about those rules after a pipe bursts.
If you're one of the many people moving between Minnesota and Florida, download my free guide, The Florida Snowbird Guide. It covers the legal steps for that move.
Mistake 3: No Plan for the Day You Die
The third mistake is the one from that Minnesota case. No one thinks about insurance on the day you die.
When you pass away, someone takes over your trust. That person is your successor trustee, and it's often one of your children. One of the very first things they should do is call your insurance agent.
Why so fast? Because the house is now empty. No one is checking on it. In the Minnesota case, the fire happened just six days after the owner died. Six days isn't much time.
So write it down for your family now. Tell your successor trustee: "When I die, call the insurance agent first. Before the funeral home bill, before the bank. Call the agent." Put your agent's name and phone number with your trust papers.
If you used a transfer on death deed or a Lady Bird deed instead of a trust, this matters even more. The person who gets your house needs their own insurance in place right away. That's exactly what went wrong for the niece in Minnesota. For more on Lady Bird deeds, read [I Already Signed a Lady Bird Deed — Now What?]
Your Checklist: Three Questions for Your Agent
Here's what to do tonight. Find your homeowner's insurance policy and look at the first page. It's called the declarations page. Find the words "named insured." Whose name is there?
If your house is in a trust and your trust isn't listed, call your agent tomorrow and ask three questions:
- Is my trust listed on my policy, and is that in writing?
- Is my trust on all of my policies? Home, flood, wind, cabin and umbrella.
- What happens to my coverage when I die and the house is empty? Ask exactly what your family needs to do, and how fast.
It's a 15-minute phone call. And it can be the difference between a paid claim and a lawsuit you lose.
The Bottom Line
A trust is a great tool. But a trust only protects what it owns, and only if the rest of your life is lined up with it. Your insurance is part of that.
If you want to learn how a trust should be set up and what to check along the way, join us in my exclusive online Estate Planning Masterclass. Click the link here to sign up.
And if you're in Florida or Minnesota and want us to review your plan, schedule a consultation with our office at Rouletlaw.com. Florida: 941-909-4644. Minnesota: 763-420-5087. Or you can fill out the contact form on this page and a member of our team will reach out to you to schedule.
Now go find that declarations page tonight.
About the Author
Chuck Roulet is the founding attorney of Roulet Law Firm, P.A., with offices in Minnetonka, Minnesota and Venice, Florida. He has practiced estate planning and elder law for nearly 30 years and is one of very few attorneys licensed in both Minnesota and Florida. Chuck has trained more than 35,000 attorneys and financial professionals as a continuing education speaker and is the author of three books, including The Florida Snowbird Guide. Florida: 941-909-4644 · Minnesota: 763-420-5087 · rouletlaw.com
Case cited: Strope-Robinson v. State Farm Fire & Casualty Co., No. 20-1147 (8th Cir. Feb. 5, 2021) (unpublished). This article is general information, not legal advice. Insurance companies and policies differ; check your own policy with your agent. Reading this article does not create an attorney-client relationship.
