What beneficiaries can do if they don’t trust their trustee…
What do you do if you are a trust beneficiary and you, well, don’t TRUST your Florida trustee? Well, if you ask any Florida trust lawyer, they will tell you that you, as a beneficiary, have a lot of rights. They may point you to theFlorida Trust Code, which is Chapter 736 of the Florida Statutes. But, what if you don’t want to hire a trust attorney just yet, but you want to try to get the information which you seek, on your own, from your trustee? Maybe you read your father’s revocable trust Boca Raton,or you know you are are a beneficiary of an inheritance under your mom’s living trust when she wrote it in Boynton Beach. But you don’t have a complete copy of the trust document, sometimes called the trust “instrument,” and you are not sure how much you inherit, or when you inherit. Here are few tips and pointers for you, the trust beneficiary, or for you, the trust attorney Florida, who may not handle trust litigation.
- Make the ask. Ask your trustee for basic information. Who are the trustees right now? How many trustees are there? Where is the trust money? How much money is in dad’s revocable living trust with the custodian in Palm Beach Gardens? Put the request in writing. Email is fine. But keep a written record. If things go south, you will use those emails in your trust lawsuit Florida, as evidence, at the probate trial Palm Beach.
- Ask for a timeframe. Trustees are required to be responsive to you, and your REASONABLE requests. Don’t expect an answer from your trustee that minute, but expect one. Ask for, or suggest, a time frame for the trustee to respond to you. A copy of the trust document, or a copy of a recent financial statement, from the bank or brokerage house or company where the trust money is invested in stocks and bonds, shoud be produced to you quickly. Those documents can be scanned and saved as .pdf’s or files which can easily be emailed. If you don’t get a complete copy of the trust document or a recent statement within a week or even a few days, that’s a red flag that your trustee is either not responding for a reason, or there may be another issue.Hmm…………..
- Understand that accountings are different than just statements. An accounting under the Florida Trust Code is not the sending of financial statements. Although you are entitled to an annual accounting, consider whether you really want one. After all, your trust money is going to be spent on the accountant or the firm which prepares the accounting. If you have been getting trust financial tatements every month, you may feel that there is no need for a formal accounting.
- Be realistic. Don’t enage in letter writing campaigns. You are entitled to relevant information from your trustee, and this
includes knowing where the money is, what the trust funds are being spent on, how much in fees, compensation and costs the trustee is paying herself or spending trust money on. If you are not getting this basic information, then you need to consider whether you want to sue your trustee for breach of trustFlorida or not. This is often called a lawsuit for breach of fiduciary duty. Trust lawsuits Palm Beach are not inexpensive and many trust lawyers say they handle trust disputes, but the truth is they may write trusts but they actually don’t handle trust trials or try cases. You may or may not need a probate litigator or a trust litigation law firm West Palm Beach. Some, not many, trust lawyers, will be paid from your trust inheritance or even take your trust lawsuit on a contingency fee if they may be able to recover damages or if you simply just can’t pay a retainer now and monthly invoices thereafter.
Good luck.