Can a trustee be removed as trustee of a trust? Yes, but it is difficult to remove a trustee. Generally, you must have an evidentiary hearing, which is a trial. It takes time to remove a Trustee. You must go through the litigation process from start to finish before a trial can take place. The […]
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? […]
If a trustee sells a trust asset, can you reverse that sale? The initial answer is no. Trustees are given the power, usually under the trust document but also under California trust law, to sell trust property at their choosing. And since Trustees have the power to sell trust assets, there is no way to […]
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 […]
Yes. A trustee can also be a beneficiary of a discretionary trust even though trustees and trust beneficiaries have different roles in a trust. The Trustee is the Trust manager, they manage the Trust assets and are referred to as the legal owner of the Trust property. Beneficiaries received all of the benefits from the […]
Trustees and executors share some similarities. They are both fiduciaries. A fiduciary is someone who is put in charge of someone else’s money. A Trustee is a fiduciary over a Trust, and an Executor is a fiduciary over a probate estate. The Role of a Trustee in California The role of a trustee may be […]
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 […]
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 […]
How do you handle bad trustees? We do many, many consults with clients where they come in and say: “I’m the beneficiary of a trust, I have a right to these assets, and the trustee’s refusing to distribute those assets to me; what am I to do?” Many people think that we, as lawyers, can […]
