A Trustee’s Best Protection

[Music] Hi this is Keith Davidson from Albertson and Davidson in this video I'm discussing a trustees protection from lawsuits there's two different types of lawsuits that trustees have to worry about one is being sued by an outside party that's the same lawsuits that anybody potentially can be subjected to so if there's a real estate transaction that goes bad and somebody wants to sue the trust and the trustee for the real estate transaction that could be a lawsuit that the trustee has to worry about with that type of lawsuit the trustee is going to use the trust money to defend the trust against the claims that's fairly straightforward the other type of lawsuit the trustee has to worry about is being sued by the beneficiaries for breach of trust mismanagement of trust assets all of those duties and obligations that a trustee has when it comes to a trustee being sued by a beneficiary most trustees want to figure out a way to prevent that and there's a number of ways to prevent that number one is to communicate with your beneficiary the more you inform the beneficiary of what's going on the better relationship you'll have with that beneficiary and the less likely you will be sued by the beneficiary in the future that makes sense you also can file a court accounting with the court when the court approves your trust accounting the beneficiaries can't come back later to sue you for breach of trust you could also ask for a release from the beneficiary if they sign a legal release releasing you from your legal liabilities then you don't have to worry about a future lawsuit but the best course of action for any trustee is to administer the trust properly account fully make sure that your transactions your financial transactions are transparent and communicate with your beneficiaries because the more you do the right thing the less you have to worry about a future lawsuit Albertson and Davidson is here to help you fight for your inheritance check out al Dave law comm for our complete library of helpful legal videos and articles from your favorite California trusts and we'll litigation law firm Albertson and Davidson LLP. [Music]