Minnesota

The law that governs

Minnesota trusts run under the Minnesota Trust Code, chapter 501C of the Minnesota Statutes. Estates are settled under the probate code, chapter 524. Real estate transfers on death can also be handled under the transfer-on-death deed statute in chapter 507. The state estate tax lives in chapter 291, and it operates very differently from the federal one.

Four things that catch Minnesotans out

Minnesota has its own estate tax, and it does not follow the federal one

The state exemption is far below the federal exemption, and Minnesota does not offer portability between spouses the way federal law does — which means a married couple can lose one spouse's exemption entirely by doing nothing. Estates that owe nothing federally routinely owe Minnesota tax. This is the single most common planning surprise in the state.

Minnesota is not a self-settled asset protection state

Several states let you create a trust for your own benefit that your creditors cannot reach. Minnesota does not. A trust you set up for yourself is reachable by your creditors here, and moving the paperwork to another state does not reliably change that — fraudulent transfer law follows the assets regardless of where the trust is signed.

Homestead treatment does not automatically survive a transfer

Putting the house into a trust can affect its homestead classification for property tax purposes, and the homestead creditor exemption interacts with trust ownership in ways that are worth confirming before the deed is recorded rather than after.

The duration limit changed and most published advice has not caught up

Minnesota's ceiling on how long a trust can last moved from 90 years to 500 years effective August 1, 2025. Articles saying 90 are not being dishonest; they are old.

Guides

• The Minnesota Estate Tax Exemption for 2026: $3,000,000, and the Rate Table That Goes With It
• What a Minnesota Trust Beneficiary Is Actually Entitled To — and Which of Those Rights the Document Can Take Away
• Minnesota's Estate Tax Starts at One-Fifth of the Federal Line, and the Unused Half of a Couple's Exclusion Is Gone
• Will vs. Trust in Minnesota: The Choice Turns on Probate, Incapacity, Privacy, and Funding — and Probate Is the Piece Most Oversold
• Revocable or Irrevocable? In Minnesota the Default Is Irrevocable, and the Difference Is Who Can Change It and Whose Creditors Can Reach It
• A Revocable Trust Does Not Stop Your Creditors — and Skipping Probate Skips the Deadline That Would Have Stopped Them
• Leaving Money to Someone on Disability Benefits: Whose Money Funded the Trust Decides the Payback
• The Revocable Trust You Signed and Never Funded Does Almost Nothing
• Why Put Your House in a Trust? An Honest Guide for Minnesota Homeowners
• The Named Successor Trustee Cannot Serve. What Happens Next?
• The Trust Seminar Pitch, Claim by Claim: Nine Promises Tested Against the Minnesota Statutes
• The Disclaimer Trust in Minnesota: Minnesota Sets No Deadline, and Federal Law Gives You Nine Months
• Privacy and a Trust in Minnesota: What the Records Show, and What They Still Show After You Fund One
• In Minnesota a Trustee Can Rewrite an Irrevocable Trust Alone, on 60 Days' Notice, Without a Judge
• The Bank Wants to See the Whole Trust. Minnesota Wrote a Statute So You Would Not Have To.
• Minnesota's Trustee Reporting Duty Sets No Deadline and No Required Contents. The Limitations Clock Is What Makes Trustees Report.
• A Minnesota Trust Can Now Run 500 Years. What South Dakota Still Has That Minnesota Does Not Is a Shorter List Than the Pitch.
• Changing an Irrevocable Minnesota Trust: Five Statutory Doors, and What Each One Costs
• A Spendthrift Clause Protects the Interest, Not the Money. In Minnesota the Fight Is About Timing and the Trustee's Discretion.
• One Recorded Page Can Move a Minnesota House Outside Probate. Eight of the Ways It Fails Are in the Statute.
• Fairness Is Not a Defense to Half of Minnesota's Trustee Loyalty Rule
• Two of Your Three Cotrustees Can Outvote You. Voting No Does Not End Your Responsibility.
• Will the State Take My Mother's House? Minnesota Estate Recovery, Explained
• Minnesota Sets No Trustee Fee Percentage — and the Fee Clause in Your Trust Does Not Settle It Either