Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California
If H and W leave trust estate equally to their three kids and H dies, his Trust share is irrevocable. W can amend HER survivor's trust to now include grandchildren but H's by-pass trust share still must go equally to the three kids and only HER share can be allocated to GC? She cannot amend the whole corpus to say equally between 3 kids and 3 GC? Trixie
3 Answers from Attorneys
This can't be answered without reviewing the trust documents.
It also is unclear if that already is the language in the trusts or merely proposed language.
The irrevocable trust is just that-but nothing prevents the beneficiaries thereof from passing on the irrev. trust corpus they receive to their heirs once they receive it. These trusts are worded the way they are to take advantage of the tax consequences of community property, among other things-but if the irrev. trust corpus is worth less than the federal exemption (now more than two million per spouse) it is not a concern. There is a way to accomplish what you are describing as long as everybody in the family is on the same page.
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