Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Pennsylvania

My mother in law had an estate/ trust. The will states that upon her death the trust would be split and that her husband would be the executor. Because it was split does he have the right to liquidate his portion because upon his death what would be left in the account would be split between the remaining parties?


Asked on 9/03/14, 6:20 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

No attorney here can answer you because no attorney here has seen the trust.

What does it mean to split a trust? I have never heard of such a thing. Assuming this is an ordinary revocable living trust then there should have been a pour-over will accompanying it. The revocable trust would become irrevocable on death. The will would govern all assets not owned by the trust and if it was a pourover will would essentially state that anything not owned by the trust would "pour over" or be distributed back to the trust after all the final bills were paid following probate, if needed. There should not have been a need for probate if the trust was properly drawn up and if your mother-in-law followed through and had all other assets re-titled in the name of the trust.

You do not indicate who is the trustee or who gets what or what is owned by the trust. You have to read the trust. If the trust says that upon death, after payment of the funeral bills, the net estate is divided in half with half to husband of the deceased mother-in-law and half to her children or other beneficiaries then the trustee has to apportion the estate.

Then what does the trust say? Does the trust terminate? Or is property to stay in trust? Who is "he"? The husband of the deceased? Some other beneficiary?

If the trust directs the trustee to give his or share to a beneficiary outright then the beneficiary gets the share and does whatever he or she wants with it. There is no liquidation of anything. If the trust continues, usually the trustee manages the trust assets and pays income to the beneficiary as per the trust - could be quarterly or annually.

Since you post a nonsensical question, I don't think reading the trust and re-posting would help here. Whoever you are, if you are one of the trust beneficiaries or the trustee, I suggest that you take the trust to a local trust/estate/probate attorney and pay him/her to review the trust and advise as to what the trustee's duties are and how the trust property is to be administered or distributed.

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Answered on 9/03/14, 9:21 pm


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