goodness $1300 - eek! of course i'm saying that with no foundation for what a typical household trust costs to have drafted.
i paid $350 for my NFA trust from a local highly regarded firearms law specialist - very shortly after suppressors were legalized for civilian ownership here in michigan. it was still all VERY new territory for us as firearms owners in the state, and the lawyers were getting top dollar - compared to the online outfits anyway.
now that we're some time down the roadn - and SBR's and SBS's are legal too - the prices have come down some from what i see in casual browsing, but they're still not at copyandpastetrust.com prices.
i settled on looking at it as a long term investment. a tool to protect my valuables. so while coughing up $350 for a trust for what was initially a $250 suppressor hurt my budget sense a bit, i knew it was the right option. that the contents of the trust would eventually easily eclipse the cost of the trust. Kind of like buying a good gun safe vs a $99 used stack-on sheet metal job.
i'm sure theres got to be someone here - or at the very least on a NFA speciality type forum (maybe like silencertalk) - that would be able to guide your friend to a good local person who can get him setup with a proper NFA trust for a reasonable cost.
just so you know and can pass it along - if he already owns any NFA items that are registered to him as an individual, unfortunatly if he decides to get a trust and wants his items placed into trust ownership he's going to have to file for new tax stamp and pay the $200 per item again to complete the transfer. its the one major sucky part of the trust deal, but unfortunatly its the only option for items in that kind of circumstance. New form 1 or form 4's would of course only incur the tax once as long as they were applied for with the trust.
good luck.
