Let’s start with a basic premise of Trust and Will law: children are not entitled to inherit anything. Parents have the right to disinherit a child, provided that, the decision to disinherit is their own. In other words, if someone else forces that decision on the parent, that is wrong. But if the parent freely […]
If you are trying to overturn a Trust or Will (or an amendment to a Trust or Will), you will find that your relationship with the decedent is going to be a big issue in your case. But what does it matter if you had a good relationship with the decedent? Legal Grounds for Overturning […]
Formal accountings can take up a lot of your time. When we say “formal accounting” we are referring to a Trust accounting that is prepared according to the format rules of the Probate Code (section 1060) and filed with the court to court approval. Why do formal accountings take so long to resolve? First, it […]
Sometimes Trustees refuse to provide beneficiaries with financial information. We can help. Before you demand a formal accounting in court, you may want to try requesting an accounting informally. You can use our ACCOUNTING DEMAND TEMPLATE and view the video instructions below. If you send an accounting demand letter and the Trustee still refuses to […]
Yes and no. Pre-death accountings refer to an accounting for the period before your parent died. If there was a Trustee other than your parent, you may be able to obtain an accounting of their activity prior to a parent’s death. But getting a pre-death accounting is not absolute. The problem is that while your […]
Yes, but the money must stay in the trust. This happens quite often with Bypass Trusts and Marital Trusts. A surviving spouse is named as the Trustee, but the Trusts themselves are irrevocable. They cannot be amended or changed, but they can be administered by the Trustee. Nearly every Trustee has the right to sell […]
Bad Trustees can make your life a nightmare. When you are the beneficiary of a Trust, you really want a competent Trustee. They don’t have to be the best necessarily, but they do need to be competent, at least. The problem is that parents, the people who create Trusts, often choose the wrong person to […]
Probate court is not just for probating a Will. In California, the Probate Court generally oversees probate administration cases (that’s where you either have a Will or have an estate with no Will), Trust cases, conservatorships, and guardianships. Probate court does more than that, but those are the big four areas Probate Court handles. Why […]
When your parents create a revocable Trust, they don’t have to tell you about it. And if they change the Trust terms to either give you more or less, they don’t have to tell you that either. Often people will find out about a change to their parent’s Trust after the parent passes and ask, […]
When a bad actor intervenes in your parent’s life to orchestrate a change in their estate plans—a change your parents didn’t want—we call that inheritance theft. It is the fastest growing area of theft among elders. And it often happens when you least expect it. It can be hard to detect and even harder to […]
