Re: Fiduciary Mismanagement

mystified <lectricmania@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in news:1189446532.428280.150540
@w3g2000hsg.googlegroups.com:

I think I accidentally resent the previous 3 posts.

Wow! Did I misread that!

Sorry about that.
I am confused as to the whole process of probate, and I don't know if
there was one, because the Executor was (is) also the Trustee of a
Revocable Trust that was set up by the Executor, who is not a family
member.

Briefly and generally (and in an oversimplified way):

Anyone who dies owning assets can leave an estate, a legal entity that
lives beyond the decedent. Some of those assets may devolve immediately
to new owners, e.g., those titled JRWROS (joint tenants) or those marked
POD/TOD (payable, transferable on death). Any others belong to the
estate. Since the estate isn't an actual person, it must take its
instructions from somewhere and it must have some actual person to
animate its actions. The instructions come from a will made by the
decdent or if there is no will, from the default rules set by your state
statutes. If there is a will, there will be a person, the executor,
named in the will who will carry out the required actions -- pay debts,
pay taxes, distribute property as instructed, etc. The will is filed
with the probate court, which has the authority to make the named
person's status official. If there is no will, then the court may
appoint an administrator to handle things.

A person may establish another legal, paper entity called a revocable
trust that does some of the same things. The person who makes the trust,
the trustor, writes the instructions into the trust, and names a person,
the trustee, who will carry out those instructions. It is common for the
trustor to serve as trustee during his own lifetime and name another
trustee upon his own death or disability. It is common for the trustor
to retitle his assets in the trust's name and to arrange the trust to be
his beneficiary (of things like insurance) and heir. Thus it is common
for someone with a trust to have no estate upon his death (since his
trust actually owns everything under his control) or to have a very
simple estate (since he willed everything he owns to his trust).

Note a couple of things: An estate doesn't exists until the will maker
dies; the trust exists as soon as it's established. The will is public
and a court will have oversight, called probate. A trust is private, and
no court automatically has any oversight. So you can find out whether
you're named in a will: check the will when it's probated. You may have
more trouble finding out whether you're named as a beneficiary of a
trust, and it you're not, then you may have trouble having standing to
challenge the trust. Your state probably imposes a duty on the trustee
to act properly on behalf of the beneficiaries, but the trustor may grant
the trustee broad powers to defend the trust against you, using trust
moneys. And the trustor can deny any benefits from the trust to anyone
who challenges the trust.

There never has been an accounting.

Are you sure you're entitled to one?

We have hired an attorney,

An excellent choice.

but I don't want to be clueless as to the proper procedures. Thank
you, and thanks in advance.

Ask your lawyer specific questions, but wills and trusts form a legal
specialty that nonlawyers are not likely to master.

*** I am not a lawyer so this cannot be legal advice. ***
.

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