The main advantages of a trust aren't in the way the assets are passed to another individual upon your death. The main advantages are in the obtaining & possessing part which falls in your lifetime.
The 2 main advantages are :
#1 trust avoids CLEO signatures, fingerprints, and certification of citizenship form. If you can't get the CLEO signature a trust is a game-saver. If you can get the CLEO signatures trusts still remove extra paperwork and complications from the process.
#2 Trust allows you to name multiple people that can possess your NFA items, and those people can be changed with time. Examples: your wife also enjoys shooting and you would like for her to be able to use your NFA weapons, or you don't want to have to worry about locking them up in a separate location from the safe (your wife probably knows the combination doesn't she?). If you and your wife get divorced or something else happens and you no longer want her to have that ability its as simple as getting the trust amended and it's done, she no longer can legally posses them. By the same token, if you have children and they turn 18 and can legally possess the weapons, you just add them to the trust and now you don't have to worry about any legal issues when you leave your kids at home, or they take your gun to the range to shoot.
Those are the 2 biggest advantages to a trust over individual ownership, and those have nothing to do with your dying, they are the here & now advantages.
For me, it was well worth the money I spent on my trust. I don't have to worry about my wife being home when I'm not because she is allowed to possess them, as is my dad and brother as well. So if my brother wants to take my suppressed gun out and do some shooting he can.
Just as a side note, trustees can be given limited powers specifically written into the trust. All additional trustees on my trust have limited powers. That means that they can't sell my items, or remove my name from the trust, they only have permission to possess/use the items held within trust.
