The old switcher-oo can happen to just about anyone. That’s where the old Trust is abandoned for a new Trust. And the new Trust has entirely new provisions that leave everything to the bad actor. For example, let’s say your oldest brother has decided that he should receive the entire estate. Your father passed away […]
There’s a lot beneficiaries can do to set things right, but it’s not as easy as you may think. Often beneficiaries will say “isn’t the Trustee breaking the law?” The answer is yes, but who is going to stand up and hold the Trustee responsible for breaking his or her duties as a Trustee? The […]
Challenging a Trust or a Trust amendment is hard work, but it can be made even harder if you cling to irrelevant myths that will not help you win your case. We want to start by dispelling a few myths before we actually get into the nitty-gritty of how to contest trust or trust amendment. […]
I want to welcome you to The Big Challenge. We’ve done a lot of videos over the years where we talk about things like lack of capacity, undue influence. These are legal grounds for overturning a trust or a trust amendment. But we’ve never put together a comprehensive course that goes from start to finish. […]
Did you realize that when you are given a gift under a Trust it comes with a string attached? Not just a little string either, but a big, giant rope tied securely around it. That rope is your Trustee. It can be a lifeline, or it can be noose. It all depends on the Trustee. […]
How Do You Divide Trust Assets Among the Trust Beneficiaries? When a Trust holds assets other than money, it can be difficult to divide the assets among the beneficiaries. For example, let’s say a Trust owns two houses; one is worth $500,000, and the other is worth $1 million. There are two beneficiaries and they […]
Welcome. I have to share some horror stories. Today, we’re talking about every beneficiary’s worst nightmare. That is dealing with a trustee who refuses to do the right thing. Trustee not paying beneficiaries A trustee can refuse to pay a beneficiary if the trust allows them to do so. They may be able to pursue a lawsuit […]
When you have a trustee who’s also a beneficiary, there’s an inherent potential conflict of interest. A trustee is a person who’s going to make all of the management decisions for the Trust. For example, the trustee may decide to sell an asset or to keep an asset, but that decision will have an effect […]
If you look at a Trust document created by a husband and wife, you will often see there are various sub-Trusts created after the first spouse dies. The purpose of these sub-Trusts is to divide up the assets, sometimes for tax purposes and sometimes for protection purposes. For example, when families have children from different […]
There are times when beneficiaries say that their trustee is claiming that the beneficiaries are harassing them. Whether it is harassment really depends on what the beneficiary is doing. If the beneficiary is asking for reasonable information such as accounting information and copies of trust financial records, none of that is harassment. Still, I’ve seen trustees […]
