How do Trustees Protect Themselves from Lawsuits?

[Music] is a Stewart Albertson with Albertson and Davidson we get the question time to time how do I as a trustee make a big decision that impacts the trust from a financial standpoint and get protection for making that decision so that the trust beneficiaries don't later on down the road sue me for that decision well let's give you a short example a trustee is gonna sell the trust asset the primary trust asset which is a family home that the parents lived in now the parents have died and the trustee needs to sell that asset the trustee did not get an appraisal on that asset but the next door neighbor has made a very generous cash offer that's too close within 30 days the trustee wants to accept the offer but is afraid that the trust beneficiaries may later say that the trustee should have got an appraisal and should have asked for more money than the neighbor had offered and even though the trustee believes this is a good deal for the trust the trustee wants some protection so there's really two options here that are available to the trustee and the one that many people choose to do is to go get a court order which takes a lot of time and effort but you get a court order from a judge saying you can accept the offer from the neighbor there's nothing better than that that's the best insurance policy you can get is a court order there is a shortcut that can work in under the right set of circumstances and it's called a notice of proposed action here the trustee puts the beneficiaries on notice that there is a cash offer what the terms of the cash offer are that the trustee believes this is full adequate fair compensation for the house and that there's a short period of time within which to accept the offer and then leaves it up to the beneficiaries to either consent or not consent to that notice of proposed action if just one of the beneficiaries does not consent to the notice of proposed action they trustee will not act and the trustee will then more than likely have to go to court to a court order but by then this the offer from the neighbor may be gone doesn't matter the trustee has protected themselves the notice of proposed action gives the trustee a quick way to get consent from all the trust beneficiaries and at the same time protecting them down the road from claims that they now number one didn't make disclosures to the beneficiaries and number two didn't get their consent prior to making a decision to sell the trust asset Albertson and Davidson is here to help you fight for your inheritance check out al dev 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.
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