There are a few exceptions to a Trustee’s duty to provide you with a Trust accounting no matter what type of beneficiary you happen to be. Where the Trust Document Waives an Accounting. If the Trust document waives an accounting, then a Trustee does not have to provide an accounting. This is an important exception, so […]
You are entitled to an accounting…maybe…depends. The truth is some beneficiaries are entitled to an accounting as a matter of right, while other beneficiaries may obtain an accounting at the discretion of the Court, but not as a matter of right. Right to Reasonable Information For starters, all beneficiaries are entitled to reasonable information from the […]
Some firms say their goal is to be (or become) the “premier firm” in whatever field they happen to practice. I think this is a terrible goal, and I’ve never really understood it. How do you know if you’re the “premier” firm, what does “premier” even mean? That’s not our goal. The problem with wanting to be […]
Don’t you believe it. This may be one of the oldest arguments in the book. Siblings often argue that whatever mom and dad gave you during life belongs to the estate. Or a closely related argument: we are going to count your lifetime gifts against your share of the estate. It really is all the same thing, siblings hate […]
Unique Nature of Trust Ownership It all comes down to the unique nature of Trusts. When a person creates a Trust they are effectively separating the legal ownership from the beneficial ownership of the assets. We don’t usually think about these two different aspects of ownership because, in every other context, they are one in the […]
Who has the right to challenge a Will, or a Trust for that matter? To challenge a Will or a Trust in California, the person filing the Trust or Will contest lawsuit must have legal standing to do so. The concept of standing has evolved from centuries of jurisprudence, first in England and then adopted […]
The answer is maybe, but you’re going to face an uphill battle. Unfortunately, the law does not give you an automatic right to receive a parent’s assets. The step-parent problem may be one of the most difficult, and least understood, issues in Trust and Will law. And it can play out in many different ways […]
The short answer is no. If you are named as the only heir to your parent’s estate, then you win—and all the excluded children lose. You do not owe them anything. Or at least, that is how it should work…in theory. But many cases are not that easy because the excluded children often do not […]
When someone dies in California, who is responsible to pay the debts? The simple answer is the estate, but that’s not such a simple matter in most cases. The reason it is not so simple is because most people do not require a probate estate to be opened. If all of your assets pass through […]
So who is in charge of overseeing your Trustee if that person chooses to violate the law and breach his or her fiduciary duties? Surely there is some governmental agency that will step in and hold that bad Trustee accountable…isn’t there? The truth is that there is no governmental authority that oversees that acts of […]
