Our Blog Posts

what to look for in a trustee

Who should you choose to be the trustee of your trust? It’s an important question and most people don’t spend a lot of time thinking about. When I used to do estate planning, my clients would say to me, well who should have I be the trustee of my trust? And we would just pick one […]

professional trustee fees

I want to address professional trustee’s fees. These are different than lay trustee fees. A lay trustee is a brother or sister or somebody else in the family that is named trustee. A professional trustee is generally a large bank, or it’s a large company that holds themselves out as professional trustees. The question is, […]

what kind of accounting do you want

Beneficiaries often contact our firm and say that they want a trust accounting. An accounting is a great way to get informed about the trust administration. But not every situation calls for a full-blown accounting. A full formal trust accounting, is a very involved process. There’s a lot that goes into a proper accounting. And, typically, you have to […]

trustee protection

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 […]

abandonment of trust assets

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 […]

who pays the trust bills

In most cases, if a trust has bills that it has to pay or debts that have to be paid off, those things will be paid out of the trust estate by the trustee.  One of the trustee’s jobs is to pay for all the expenses and debts of the trust estate. Trust Beneficiaries Do […]

you're out removing a trustee

In some instances, a trust document will give a beneficiary the power to remove the trustee. The first thing you should do is take a look at your trust document. Look through the trustee provision and see if there is a provision for removing the trustee. A removal provision would say something to the effect that you, as the […]

We get this question routinely. We have Beneficiaries of a Trust come to us and say, “My brother or sister is the Trustee of the Trust and they’re saying they’re going to take $150,000 in Trustee’s fees. Is that allowed?” And the answer is, “Well, it depends.” And, of course, it depends on the facts and circumstances in the […]

facts

Albertson & Davidson’s Beneficiary’s Corner California’s Will & Trust Lawyers have created the Beneficiary’s Corner for those wanting to learn more about inheriting an asset, a property, or a lump sum of money. Albertson and Davidson have created the Beneficiary’s Corner for abused beneficiaries, so they can better understand their rights regarding, California Trust and […]

inheritance rights

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, […]