Don’t Give Away What’s Not Yours to Give

[Music] Okay so every once in a while we do see trustees doing this and to this day I have no idea why they do it but they give money away from the trust to people that aren't actually named beneficiaries of the trust how we normally see this is the trustee is a close friend or family member of the decedent and realizes the decedent wanted certain people in the family to have some money maybe some and some uncles or brothers or sisters that aren't named in the trust document and so they choose just to make a small ten thousand twenty thousand dollar gift to these people just because they believe this is what their brother or sister who's passed away would have wanted a trustee is not entitled to do that you look at the trust terms you find the trust beneficiaries you find out if their specific gift beneficiaries residu beneficiaries you find out what their beneficial interest is and that's the distributions that you make to beneficiaries you don't make distributions based on what you believe the your brother or sister told you before they died or on what you believe they would have done with their money it's only to the name trust beneficiaries Albertson and Davidson is here to help you fight for your inheritance check out Alda law calm 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.