Blog Posts About Trust Beneficiaries

In most cases, if a trust has bills that it has to pay or debts that have to be paid off, those things will be paid out of the trust estate by the trustee.  One of the trustee’s jobs is to pay for all the expenses and debts of the…

When you have a trustee who’s also a beneficiary, there’s an inherent potential conflict of interest. A trustee is the person who’s going to make all of the management decisions for the Trust. For example, the trustee may decide to sell an asset or to keep an asset, but that…

You may find this surprising, but in California, children do not have an automatic right to inherit their parents’ assets.  And you’re not alone – a lot of people are surprised about that.  They’ll call up our office saying a bad actor changed the Will or the Trust and somebody…

There’s a difference between the lawyer who represents the Trust that you’re a Beneficiary of and the lawyer that represents Beneficiaries.  A very big difference. And the reason there is sometimes confusion is because somebody becomes the Beneficiary of their parents’ Trust and they believe they can call the attorney…

Should a Trustee have one or two attorneys that represents them in a litigated trust matter?  Let me give an example. You have a Trustee after Mom and Dad have passed away and the Trustee is administering the Trust as the Trust terms state.  But, maybe the Trustee’s brother and…

A trustee is the Trust manager, the person who calls the shots. But the trustee has limits on what they can do with the Trust property. The trustee cannot do whatever they want. They must follow the trust document, and follow the California Probate Code. More than that, Trustees don’t get…

A Trust beneficiary is the person who will enjoy the assets of the Trust. In legal jargon, trust and will attorneys refer to Trust beneficiaries as the “equitable owners” of the Trust. Beneficiaries will receive money and other assets from the Trust either outright (meaning being paid all at once)…

When the time comes to distribute assets to Trust beneficiaries, there are a number of ways to do so. When a Trust consists solely of cash, then the distribution is easy. The Trustee can write a few checks, make the Trust distribution, and end the Trust administration.   If the…

If you were to crack open a copy of the California Probate Code and start reading from Section 16000 onward, you would find pages of rules discussing the duties of a California Trustee. The first duty, listed at Section 16000, is one of the most important: do what the Trust…

There are many assets that pass to children using a beneficiary designation form. A beneficiary designation is any form where beneficiaries are listed. For example, life insurance passes to the beneficiary listed on the life insurance policy. Individual retirement accounts and 401(k)’s pass to the people listed as beneficiaries on…