Blog Posts About Abused Beneficiary

If you have a bad Trustee who mismanaged assets, misappropriated them, or just stole them, you may be wondering how to find the money.  That is a good question, and not always easy to answer.  Of course, much depends on how the money was taken, or whether the money was…

There are a few exceptions to a Trustee’s duty to provide you with a Trust accounting no matter what type of beneficiary you happen to be. Where the Trust Document Waives an Accounting. If the Trust document waives an accounting, then a Trustee does not have to provide an accounting. …

You are entitled to an accounting…maybe…depends.  The truth is some beneficiaries are entitled to an accounting as a matter of right, while other beneficiaries may obtain an accounting at the discretion of the Court, but not as a matter of right. Right to Reasonable Information For starters, all beneficiaries are…

Some firms say their goal is to be (or become) the “premier firm” in whatever field they happen to practice.  I think this is a terrible goal, and I’ve never really understood it.  How do you know if you’re the “premier” firm, what does “premier” even mean? That’s not our…

Don’t you believe it.  This may be one of the oldest arguments in the book.  Siblings often argue that whatever mom and dad gave you during life belongs to the estate.  Or a closely related argument: we are going to count your lifetime gifts against your share of the estate. …

Simply put, no.  A Trustee is considered the legal owner of all Trust assets.  And as the legal owner, the Trustee has the right to manage the Trust assets unilaterally, without direction or input from the beneficiaries.  In fact, that is the purpose of having a Trustee in the first…

Who has the right to challenge a Will, or a Trust for that matter? To challenge a Will or a Trust in California, the person filing the Trust or Will contest lawsuit must have legal standing to do so. The concept of standing has evolved from centuries of jurisprudence, first…

The answer is maybe, but you’re going to face an uphill battle. Unfortunately, the law does not give you an automatic right to receive a parent’s assets. The step-parent problem may be one of the most difficult, and least understood, issues in Trust and Will law. And it can play…

The short answer is no. If you are named as the only heir to your parent’s estate, then you win—and all the excluded children lose. You do not owe them anything. Or at least, that is how it should work…in theory. But many cases are not that easy because the…

When someone dies in California, who is responsible to pay the debts? The simple answer is the estate, but that’s not such a simple matter in most cases. The reason it is not so simple is because most people do not require a probate estate to be opened. If all…