@George4Tacks I don't hate trusts, some of my best clients have paid me to prepare a trust for them when it's appropriate, although more of them have paid me to amend them to get rid of all the cookie-cutter dreck, or to revoke them.  I just feel sorry for the people who are conned into buying them from promoters who operate with the knowledge that fools and their money are soon parted.  

In this case, I have no idea what a "personal residence trust" means, but when the poster states "No step up in basis is available to the Trust," that's probably an indication that it was irrevocable.  Maybe there was some provision meant to preserve the exclusion. 

"90% of the people with living trusts don't need one, and 90% of the people who need one don't have one.  Likewise, 90% of the people who buy annuities shouldn't, and 90% of the people who should buy an annuity, don't."