Joint Ownership

• If you share joint ownership of real estate or other assets with someone, you have every right to convey your title and percentage of ownership to your living trust. You cannot transfer title to the entire property unless your co-owners consent. If you own an asset with your spouse as community property, you will probably need your spouse's consent -- and his signature on the deed -- to put any part of the property in the trust.
  
  

Inheritance

• You may not need a living trust to keep jointly owned assets out of probate. If you have joint ownership with right of survivorship, your co-owners automatically inherit your share when you die. If you own property jointly with your spouse and plan to leave it to her, most states will allow her to take full ownership without going through probate. If you're married but have assets that are completely in your name, setting up a trust for that property might be worthwhile.
  
  

Pros and Cons

• If you and your spouse put jointly owned property into a joint account, it will enable you to avoid probate and pass property to someone else if you both die. On the other hand, the Nolo legal website states that if you're young and don't have a large estate, transferring property title to the trust may be more paperwork than it's worth. If you don't put assets into the trust, there's no point to having one: A trust without assets can't do anything and in some states is not even legal.
  
  

Joint and Separate

• If you and your spouse place your common property in a joint living trust, you should consider setting up extra trusts for your separately owned property. If you mingle individual and marital assets, then divorce later, it may be difficult or impossible to straighten them out and reclaim your individual assets. Separate trusts for each of you would prevent that. If your separately owned assets add up to only a few thousand dollars, however, this may not be worth the effort.