Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California

Well you are still alive, so no harm has been done yet. Have you discussed it with your attorney?

Your parents could be executors, and your wife the trustee. If it's a pour-over will, then anything going into your estate would be poured over (by your parents) into your trust to be administered by your wife. Still, it makes sense to correct the oversight.

when a revocable trust is amended, a qualified and thorough attorney should review the other estate planning documents (pourover will, durable power of attorney for asset management, advance health care directive) with you for any desired changes.

You should consult with the attorney who did the amendment and ask this question. A review of the entire estate plan would be required to answer your question and that review obviously cannot be done in a forum such as this.

There is not necessairly a conflict between the two documents and your parents can definitely serve as executors while you new wife serves as trustee. Whether or not this set up does, in fact, make sense will depend to some extent on what the two documents say and whether any property will actually be passing under your will. If you have a typical "pour over" will and general assignment of assets, i.e. all of you assets are going to be distributed under your trust, not your will, the attorney may not have thought the additional change necessary. On the other hand, if some property is going to pass under your will, he may have thought it was better to keep your parents in. In either case, the attorney should have discussed these issues with you and allowed you to make the decission. I suggest that you start by talking with him.

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