Submitted by bender56 on Fri, 09/17/2010 - 08:19
My two boys, age 12 and 15 are the beneficiaries of a trust set up by a great-aunt who passed away several years ago. The trustee is an attorney in MA and he never sends any accounting regarding the trust or any other information. I know I've got to do something. I've called him before and asked for information and got no where. Should I go right to the probate court or should I try a letter to this guy first?
Trustee refuses to send Accounts
I have created 1,000's of trusts over the last 20 years, and reviewed 1,000's of trusts that other attorneys have drafted. Essentially all of the trust documents require that the trustees complete an annual Account so that the beneficiaries of the trust can review what the trustee has done during the Accounting period. It is a basic "check and balance". Otherwise you do not know what the trustee is doing.
You are the natural guardian of the minor beneficiaries, which frankly does not give you the same authority as the legal guardian/conservator - but certainly gives you enough to write the trustee a very direct letter. You need to get a copy of the trust immediately. There is absolutely no way that you should accept "no", or a non-response. Get a copy of the trust! You can then read the trust - and I am pretty sure that you will find a paragraph addressing when an Account is required. With that information, you can hold the trustee to the language of the trust. Remember that the trust document is the contract between the trustee and the beneficiaries - and just like any contract your children have certain rights. If the trustee is not living up to the terms of the contract, then you have rights. Even if no Account is required under the terms of the trust, you still have the right to trust information.
Frankly most trustees want you to have an annual Account because it relieves them of ongoing liability. So I would not run off to the Probate Court yet. Send a certified letter to the trustee and see if they are responsive. Do not put this on the back burner. I am sure that everything is OK, but trust mismanagement or intentional bad acts by a trustee are not uncommon - and your "supervision" makes it much less likely to occur. Good luck.
Attorney Peter Bernardin
Can you find the contents of a trust if you are a beneficiary?
My father died and his will left nothing to his beneficiaries except the mention of trusts. He owned a multi-million dollar home that is in a real estate trust and all of his monetary assests in another. We found out who the attorney/Trustee of the real estate trust was, but he claims to not be in charge of anything else. He told us to ask the executor of the will. That attorney said he only wrote up the will and has no information on where the other trust is.
The real estate trust was set up so that his eldery second wife could live in the house until her death, at which point my siblings and I will inherit the house. In his will, it specifically says that his wife receives no money, bank accounts, stock, insurance policies or businesses that he owned. The bills and the taxes for the house are paid for somehow, we assume form the money in the other trust.
Our question is, since my siblings and I are not on speaking terms with his wife, how do we find out where the second trust is and who is handling it? Could it be the real esate trust attorny or the executor attorney and they are being untruthful? Does MA trust law state that beneficiaries of a trust be notified of its whereabouts and contents for accountability?