Trust Administration

Beneficiaries are supposed to receive reasonable information and timely distributions of their share of the Trust money and property. Unfortunately, many beneficiaries are kept in the dark and receive no Trust distributions. In other words, they receive no money and no information. It can be hard to know what to…

There are many examples of bad Trustees either failing or refusing to keep the Trust beneficiaries reasonably informed. Under Probate Code section 16060, the Trustee has a duty to keep the beneficiaries reasonably informed of the Trust and its administration. Further, under section 16060.7, the Trustee has a duty to…

In California, Trustees can also be beneficiaries of a Trust. Even if the Trust has multiple beneficiaries. That means one person can be both the Trust manager (Trustee) and benefit from the Trust (beneficiary). You may ask ‘isn’t this a conflict of interest?’ Maybe yes and maybe no. Anytime one…

If you are an occupant of a property owned by a trust, here is what you should know. The trustee is the legal owner of the trust property and may have the right to evict you, even if you are beneficiary. The first thing you should do is ask the…

Are you entitled to an inheritance under a trust, but the person in charge is mistreating you? Here are some of the ways trustees mistreat beneficiaries: Refusing to provide information Unreasonably withholding distributions Ignoring communication with the beneficiaries Exercising favoritism Misappropriating trust assets Failing to comply with trust terms Self-dealing…

You Think you are Entitled to an Inheritance Under a Trust, but the Person in Charge Wont Hand it Over. Receiving an inheritance should be easy… right? If you have a good trustee, yes. If you have a bad trustee, obtaining your inheritance may involve some work. The first step…

Let’s say that you just found out that you’re the beneficiary of a $3 million trust fund, and there are a total of three beneficiaries. Each beneficiary stands to receive $1 million dollars. That is an exciting day that doesn’t happen to many people. You wonder when you are going…

A trustee may ask a beneficiary to sign a piece of paper indemnifying the trustee prior to making a distribution of trust assets. First, let’s talk about what indemnification means? Indemnification is a legal term. It literally means that one person is going to pay for any loss or harm…

There are times when beneficiaries say that their trustee is claiming that the beneficiaries are harassing them. Whether it is harassment really depends on what the beneficiary is doing.  If the beneficiary is asking for reasonable information such as accounting information and copies of trust financial records, none of that…