Q: We have had our mortgage for five years, but it was sold to another lender in July. Now we are planning to purchase a new house in December, so we will be applying for a new home loan. Will our credit report show that our payment history has been perfect since we obtained our current loan five years ago, or will it only show our payment history going back to when the new bank purchased it in the summer?

A: You have nothing to worry about. Your credit report (and resulting credit score) will show that you have dutifully made your monthly mortgage payments for the past five years.

It’s fairly common for lenders to sell their mortgages to other financial institutions, or to contract with third-party “loan-servicing” companies to process their customers’ monthly payments. The financial terms of the original loan cannot be changed when the mortgage is transferred, but the borrower must begin sending the payments to a new address.

Fortunately for dependable borrowers like you, payment information reported by both the original lender and the one that recently purchased the loan usually will appear on a credit report.

This ensures that you’ll get the proper credit for promptly making your payments since the mortgage was first issued.

Of course, if you had ever been late with a payment in recent years, that information also would appear on your credit report, even though the loan was transferred to another institution in the summer.

Q: I am confused about some comments you recently made about living trusts and how they can save money. If I formed the type of basic living trust that you wrote about, would I be considered the “trustee” or its “beneficiary”?

A: You would name yourself as the “trustee,” assuming that you would want to control your own home or other assets that you place into the trust while you are alive and still capable of making decisions for yourself.

Your beneficiary is the person (or persons) you select to receive the trust’s assets after you die. Most people name their children or other loved ones as beneficiaries, but some choose a nonprofit organization, university or other institution.

No matter which beneficiary you choose, forming an inexpensive trust now could help to ensure that your heirs will not have to go through the costly and time-consuming probate process that typically eats away at the estate left by those who die with only a common will.