Copy Please! How do I get a Copy of my Mom or Dad’s Trust?

[Music] Hut is Keith Davidson from Albertson and Davidson in this video I want to talk about how do you get a copy of a trust for your parents after your parents pass away you are entitled to see a copy of their trust and will but a lot of times you simply can't get a hold of that copy for whatever reason maybe the person who has the trust refuses to give it to you maybe you don't even know who has a copy of the trust in this video we're gonna go through the steps that you need to take to obtain a copy of your parents trust the first thing you should know is that while your parents are alive if their trust is revocable which most trusts are you are not entitled to receive a copy of the trust it's a private document and your parents have the right to show it to you if they want to but it's not mandatory only once the trust or portion of the trust becomes irrevocable do you then have a right to see a copy of that document usually the trust becomes irrevocable after one of your parents dies or at least a portion of it does and so when that occurs you should have a right to see a copy of that trust the next step is how do you actually obtain that copy you may ask for it and somebody may just refuse to give it to you and in that event you have to go to court and you have to ask the court to order the person to give you a copy now I want to make one thing very clear trusts are not recorded documents they don't get recorded in the county recorders office they're not filed with the court there's really no way for you to go out and to find a copy of the trust on your own independently because trusts are private documents they're maintained usually with the person who created them or the successor trustee and so you can't just go out and ask some governmental agency you can see a copy of it that's not going to happen so this is what you need to do the first thing you do is you send a written request for a copy of the trust it doesn't have to be anything fancy there are no magic words just write up an email or letter or a fax and just say I would like to see a copy of my parents trust and we'll all of their estate planning documents the person who has those documents usually is the successor trustee they have 60 days to give them to you if 60 days passes and you haven't received a copy of the trust then you file a petition in the probate court and you ask the court to order the trustee to hand the documents over to you and usually once you've filed that type of petition the other side whoever has the documents they're probably going to hand them over before the court hearing because quite frankly they don't want to be yelled at by the judge because the court will order them to hand those documents over and then once you receive a copy of the trust and will then you can speak to a lawyer and see what your rights are so that's a little information about how you can go about getting a copy of your parents trust or will when the time comes. [Music] [Applause] [Music]