Can a trustee loan money to a trust? There are times when a Trust may be land-rich, but cash-poor. Or maybe the Trust owns a business, financial investments, or any other type of asset that cannot be easily sold. How does the Trustee pay bills and expenses when there is no cash to pay from? […]
There are times when you know something has gone wrong with your Trust administration. Perhaps the Trustee is not making proper Trust investments, is not managing Trust assets properly, or is outright stealing from the Trust. At times, the harm caused by a Trustee can be less obvious, such as living in a home owned by […]
If you are a Trustee beneficiary who is having problems with your Trustee, you need to file for help in the probate court. To file, you bring a petition under section 17200, which gives the court the power to issue orders regarding the internal affairs of the Trust. Section 17200 provides a long list of […]
In most cases, a Trustee can be changed after a California Trust becomes irrevocable. How you go about making that change varies depending on your Trust document and your circumstances. For starters, look at your Trust document. Most Trust documents provide a method for changing the Trustee. Some Trusts allow the Trust beneficiaries to make […]
If your Trust requires a distribution to you, and you’re not receiving it, you may be wondering “how long will this take?” Unfortunately, there are times when a Trust distribution takes much longer than it should to be made. Timeliness is Important As with all things involving a Trustee’s actions, Trust distributions are required to […]
Trustee compensation can be a tricky issue. Most Trust documents do not specify an amount for Trustee compensation. And even the California Probate Code states that Trustee compensation must be “reasonable” (see Section 15681), but what is reasonable? First, let’s consider situations where a Trustee is not entitled to compensation at all because that may […]
We’ve addressed the issue of Trust and Will no-contest clauses several times in our blog posts and videos in the past, but we think it’s an important issue to keep people aware of what the legislation is in California pertaining to no-contest clauses. A no-contest clause is generally included in a Trust, Will, or both, […]
We want to talk to you about a fantastic device that we’re starting to use in our cases called the Informal Discovery Conference. We call these IDCs for short. What is an Informal Discovery Conference? It’s an informal meeting with the judge to resolve a discovery dispute. Discovery disputes arise where a party either refuses […]
Nobody likes Motions to Compel. We don’t like Motions to Compel. Judges don’t like them, and neither do the opposing parties we bring them against. But they are, sometimes, required to be brought in cases where you need information to make sure you know what facts, witnesses and documents are in a case prior to […]
Many times, a Trustee will get themselves into trouble because they will take some action that is a conflict of interest. A Trustee is a fiduciary of the Trust. That means that they owe a duty to the Trust and to the Trust beneficiaries to treat them fairly, to do the right thing. And one […]
