Ask 2 Lawyers: Who Pays Attorneys’ Fees for Objections to Trust Accounting?

If I have to go to court to get a trust accounting well the trustee pay my attorney's fees [Music] let's say the trustee does a fantastic job and gives you the best accounting you've ever seen and you're just an honorary beneficiary this doesn't happen by the way trust you I don't do that but let's just say because there's a probate code section I'm worried about here a little bit maybe you're seeing where I'm going here but let's say that I just want to be difficult on the trustee and I go ahead and file anyway say no they need to give me a formal accounting is there a probate code section that can hurt me there well I think you're probably getting two attorneys fees and so if if I don't think that you're gonna get tagged with attorneys fees if the beneficiary says give me a court filed accounting but if a beneficiary objects to that accounting in bad faith that's what the code says then the beneficiary may have to pay the trust back for any attorneys fees the trustee had to spend that's right defend those baseless objections that's right very rarely happens I don't think I've never seen it in my career I've been practicing for almost two decades but there is a Code section out there for it what I have seen that's a little bit more common but still rare is it also applies to the trustee so if the trustee files an accounting the beneficiary objects and the trustee fights those objections in bad faith then the trustee could be liable they have to pay the trust back for the attorneys fees that were paid out of the trust doesn't happen a lot but there is at returnees fees provision out there that you should be aware of don't mean to get complex here but as you can see we started out with a very basic request for an accounting and this turns into a complex mess at times doesn't it if you're not careful yeah so you have to you have to understand how to navigate through these waters but there's so much power to a beneficiary by going to court and that's why we really encourage beneficiaries if you're gonna stand up for yourself to file as soon as you can because that's where you start to turn the tables albertson and Davidson is here to help you fight for your inheritance check out al devlog com for our complete library of helpful legal videos and articles from your favorite California trusts and we'll litigation law firm Albertson and Davidson LLP.