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.
Why is it so hard for some people to receive their inheritance?
The answer is usually: a bad trustee. Sometimes, a sibling or other family member is appointed as a trustee, and that person doesn’t understand what the trustee’s duties are. Sometimes the trustee is keeping everything for themselves. Sometimes the beneficiaries are at war with each other and it delays the trust administration.
If you’re the beneficiary who should be receiving money or assets, and you’ve waited a long time without receiving anything, that’s a problem. Unfortunately, it may be up to you as the beneficiary to do something about it. You can try requesting money or information from the trustee(s) by writing letters, but without going to court, there is no way to force the trustee(s) or the other beneficiaries to do the right thing.
Once you petition the court, you’ve got all the powers of the court behind you to enforce the terms of the trust. You can issue subpoenas. You can take depositions. You can ask the judge to issue orders. This is where you start to see light at the end of the tunnel, because you can get the whole process moving. Unfortunately, it may be incumbent upon you as the beneficiary to step in and clean up this mess. The good news is you have legal recourse.
