Blog Posts About Trustee Duty

If you are filing a lawsuit pertaining to an inheritance under a Trust or Will in California there are deadlines that must be followed. These deadlines are called statutes of limitation. A statute is a written law passed by the legislature. A statute of limitations is a law prescribing a…

How long should you wait for a Trust accounting? After the Trust creators (also called “Settlors”) pass away, beneficiaries can expect to wait between six months to one year for an accounting from the Trustee. The time frame depends on the nature of the assets and the terms of the…

Some Trustees ask beneficiaries to sign a waiver of accounting before making Trust distributions. Occasionally, if there are multiple beneficiaries, some of the beneficiaries may be happy to waive a formal accounting, while one beneficiary refuses. What happens if one of the beneficiaries refuses to sign a waiver of accounting?…

How do you know if you are a beneficiary of a Trust, and how much you are entitled to receive? The only way to know is to review the terms of the Trust document. However, that can be a problem at times when a parent refuses to share Trust document…

What do you do when a trustee refuses to give you the financial documents you are entitled to as a beneficiary? Isn’t the trustee required to give you financial information? The answer is simple: YES. The trustee has a duty to keep beneficiaries reasonably informed about the trust administration and…

You’re entitled to a distribution and you should receive it within a reasonable time. Typically, trust beneficiaries expect to receive their inheritance in a year or less, depending on the complexities of the estate. What happens when your Trustee won’t follow the terms of the Trust? Why aren’t they following…

Are you having a hard time receiving your inheritance? You are a named beneficiary of a trust and you are entitled to an inheritance. You should just be handed your share of the money… right?  Yet a year has passed, maybe several… and you still have not received your inheritance….

Sometimes Trustees refuse to provide beneficiaries with financial information. We can help. Before you demand a formal accounting in court, you may want to try requesting an accounting informally. You can use our ACCOUNTING DEMAND TEMPLATE and view the video instructions below. If you send an accounting demand letter and…

Yes and no. Pre-death accountings refer to an accounting for the period before your parent died. If there was a Trustee other than your parent, you may be able to obtain an accounting of their activity prior to a parent’s death. But getting a pre-death accounting is not absolute. The…

Yes, but the money must stay in the trust. This happens quite often with Bypass Trusts and Marital Trusts. A surviving spouse is named as the Trustee, but the Trusts themselves are irrevocable. They cannot be amended or changed, but they can be administered by the Trustee. Nearly every Trustee…