What you'll learn View contents
The short answer
A trust changes whose name is on the registration. In normal operation, it does not change who is in command.
Almost every owner asks this first, and the concern behind it is fair. You are being told to put your aircraft in someone else's name. That sounds like handing over the keys.
It is not, and the reason comes down to a second document most people never hear about until they ask.
The documents you sign
The trust agreement gives the FAA what it needs. The lease agreement returns operational control to you.
They are signed together, as one package, on the same day. Most structures use these two. Some use more, depending on how your ownership is arranged.
The trust agreement places the registration in the trustee's name. That satisfies the citizenship rule and does nothing else.
The lease agreement returns operational control to you from the moment the trust exists. You fly the aircraft. You choose the pilots, the insurer, the maintenance shop, and the country it is based in. You lease it out if you want to. You sell it when you decide.
What your trustee does and does not do
The trustee does not operate the aircraft or make operational decisions except as provided in the trust documents.
Your trustee does not move it, fly it, or arrange its insurance on their own initiative. Those decisions sit with you, and the documents you sign set that out in writing.
If anything, a well-drafted trust sets out your rights more explicitly than direct registration would, because they are written down rather than assumed.
“In all my years doing this, no client has ever lost an operational right to a trust. The lease agreement exists so that cannot happen.”
Have a trust in front of you and want a second opinion on it? Send it over.
Ask for a quoteWhat happens when you sell
The trust is closed, and you receive the signed Bill of Sale.
You then sell to your buyer much as you would with any aircraft. The closing fee is €250, and we coordinate the timing with your buyer's schedule.
If your circumstances change in another direction, for example you become eligible to register directly, the trust can be dissolved and the registration transferred to you.
What if your current trustee is not doing the job
You can change trustee, and you do not have to keep the one you have.
Some of our clients come to us from another trustee, usually for the same handful of reasons: calls not returned, deadlines missed, or no clear answer to a simple question.
Because operational control was never with the trustee in the first place, moving a trust is an administrative process rather than a negotiation. Your aircraft keeps its N-number. If your trustee is not answering the phone, that is reason enough to move.
