So you find yourself as a trustee of a trust and you have to make expenditures out of that trust. And the question is, “What are appropriate expenditures?” Well, let’s first talk about what your basic and primary job is a trustee and that is, as a trustee, you’re going to collect all the assets […]
So this happens from time to time where a trustee is the trustee of a trust that owns real property such as a house or a cabin or vacation home and there are beneficiaries of that trust who ultimately will inherit the VALUE of that property. And the reason I say the VALUE of that property […]
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? Here’s a brief example. A trustee is […]
There will be times when a trustee will be managing a trust and they’ll come across a trust asset that simply isn’t worth anything. It could be an interest in a partnership that has gone defunct and is no longer in business. It could be a lot of land out in the middle of the desert […]
You may find this surprising, but in California, children do not have an automatic right to inherit their parents’ assets. And you’re not alone – a lot of people are surprised about that. They’ll call up our office saying a bad actor changed the Will or the Trust and somebody else is getting the assets, […]
It sounds like a relatively easy question. At least in my mind it does. But the answer is a bit more complicated. An Estate can mean a lot of different things. People often think that their Estate is all of the assets they own. And that is one appropriate use of the word “estate”. Probate […]
What constitutes trust assets after someone dies? A Trust only controls assets that are held in the name of the Trustee. In other words, a Trust does not necessarily control every asset owned by the decedent. For example, let’s say your mom and dad owned a home, a bank account with $200,000 on deposit, and […]
