What is a Trustee’s duty to distribute estate property?
Get Legal Help Today
Compare Quotes From Top Companies and Save
Secured with SHA-256 Encryption
What is a Trustee’s duty to distribute estate property?
My husband’s mother passed away about a year ago. She had a living Trust with all 5 children as beneficiaries. The oldest child is the trustee. There is only one investment account that needs to be distributed; all other assests have been distributed. It has now been 11 months and the trustee is refusing the distribute the one large investment account until the end of this year. She will not give any of the beneficiaries information on the account as well. My understanding is the living trust should have been fully distributed within 5 to 6 months. What can we do to move this along or what other options do we have?
Asked on October 9, 2013 under Estate Planning, California
Answers:
Nathan Wagner / Law Office of Nathan Wagner
Answered 11 years ago | Contributor
You could petition a court for an order forcing the trustee to distribute the assets, but that may not be very helpful here. The trustee says they will distribute in about 3 months. It will probably take that long to get an order from the court. Furthermore, the trustee can probably use the trust assets to defend herself from that lawsuit.
There may be good reasons for refusing to distribute until the new year (although it is strange that the trustee will not give information about the account). Many investiment accounts impose penalties if funds are withdrawn early. The trustee may just be trying to preserve trust assets by avoiding paying a penalty.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: The Answer(s) provided above are for general information only. The attorney providing the answer was not serving as the attorney for the person submitting the question or in any attorney-client relationship with such person. Laws may vary from state to state, and sometimes change. Tiny variations in the facts, or a fact not set forth in a question, often can change a legal outcome or an attorney's conclusion. Although AttorneyPages.com has verified the attorney was admitted to practice law in at least one jurisdiction, he or she may not be authorized to practice law in the jurisdiction referred to in the question, nor is he or she necessarily experienced in the area of the law involved. Unlike the information in the Answer(s) above, upon which you should NOT rely, for personal advice you can rely upon we suggest you retain an attorney to represent you.