Trust and/or LLC

Hi All. I just have a quick question. We've managed to purchase a couple of rental properties and currently carry what we feel is sufficient insurance on these properties. we are also in process of creating a trust so that should anything happen to either of us (Wife and I), we won't have to worry about where the houses will go. with that said, Do we necessarily need to create and LLC first to transfer the properties into before finally transfering ownership of the LLC to a trust? Thanks for all you'all help!