Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California

Re: Amendment to Revocable Living Trust

That is a big error. As Mr. Roth stated, if the trust is still revocable it should be cleared up by a simple amendment and restatement. If, however, the trust is irrevocable, you have a very difficult situation. Generally irrevocable trusts are created for dependency or tax reasons and as such the grantor is generally not set up as the trustee.

If this is an irrevocable trust, it was created by an attorney and it really was in error (your mother did not request it)... then I would take the trust back to the attorney and have them fix it. If we made such an error (we never have), we would absolutely fix that error for no cost to the client. I would demand similar treatment from whoever created the trust.

If you did not have an attorney create the trust, you should really consider seeing one to fix it. This is the reason why most people hire attorneys, the laws are complex and trusts/wills can be easily screwed up. Most such problems are never figured out until after the grantor has passed, and then it leaves a nightmare for the beneficiaries.

Re: Amendment to Revocable Living Trust

your mother should consult an attorney. in addition to the question of amending the trust, there are other issues that arise when refinancing real property held by a revocable trust.

Re: Amendment to Revocable Living Trust

If the trust is still revocable, the Grantor can simply state she is amending the trust to make herself the Trustee and ther daughters the successor trustee. A new Abstract of Trust should then be recorded. Of course, the house should be in the name of ht trust.

All that being said, there are no magic words. You may want to read my book for lay persons on estate planning for the middle class through a trust. It is in plain simple English and can be found on one of my websites, www.yourlivinglegacy.info.