Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Arizona

Re: When are beneficiaries notified

Typically, the terms of a trust will contain the succession of trustees. Some trusts contain language that says that if the successor trustee can not act, then the beneficiaries can appoint a new trustee to act.

Unfortunately, without the trust document, there is no way to tell what the directions are, and what should have happened upon the death of the successor trustee.

As far as notification, again, MOST trusts contain a provision for an annual accounting to the beneficiaries. However, this trust may not.

Acting as a trustee brings a fiduciary responsibility that is generally governed by the laws of the state in which the Trust is located. However, at time a trust is governed by the laws of another state.

In order to determine your rights, you need to know what the language of the trust says.

Lastly, do you know if there has been a probate estate opened? Were all of your grandmother's assets in the trust? There may be other issues that you are not aware of that are delaying action being taken on the trust.

How do you know that you are a beneficiary under the trust? What is the value of the trust? Is it possible that your grandmother used the assets of the trust prior to her death?

There are a lot of unanswered questions here.

Please contact me if you would like to discuss the issues further.

Re: When are beneficiaries notified

The named successor trustee's wife has no authority to act as trustee just because she is the surviving spouse, particularly because you have stated that the successor trustee died before the Initial Trustee. The trust agreement should provide for the appointment of a successor under these circumstances, so you should make an effort to locate a copy of the trust agreement and see what it provides. Further, the agreement would be required in order to ascertain who are the beneficiaries of the trust. Keep in mind that the trust agreement is not required to be recorded, however a records search in the county where real property is located might provide valuable info if the trust was funded with real estate (ie. the family residence). You call yourselves the "beneficiaries" but you do not know if you are without the trust agreement. You may be the "heirs" under state statute, that is a different matter. Notice may be required by the applicable state law or the trust agreement. It would seem that you should take action at once to petition the probate court to open probate administration of your Grandmother's estate and to make a determination if there is a trust existing and if it was funded. Statistics are that 60% of the time, people establish trusts and never put any assets in the trust. You must also look for a Will by Grandmother.