Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California

Once you resign as trustee (or decline to serve if you have not accepted the role of trustee) you will have no say over what happens to the Trust or its assets. That will be up to the new trustee.

If the Trust does not specify who is to be the trustee if you resign or refuse to serve, and does not provide a method for selecting a new trustee, you can go to Court to get one appointed. That process would, of course, be paid for by the Trust.

Unless the Trust specifically provides that no fees are to be paid, then anyone who serves as Trustee (including you) will be entitled to a fee. A bank or other professional trustee will not, of course, agree to serve if they are not going to get paid. The fee is generally based on a combination of a two things - a small percentage of the assets as a base fee and an hourly or other fee for any special services that are provided.

Assuming that you don't just want to refuse to serve, or to resign, If the Trust permits you to do so, one way to handle this situation for you would be to split the Trust assets into separate trusts for each of the minor beneficiaries, with their parent(s) as the trustee of the sub trusts. (If the Trust does not specifically allow this but everyone, or almost everyone, agrees you could also ask the Court to approve it.) That way, each kid would have a separate trust with their share and a trustee who was legally accountable to them. The terms of the sub-trusts could, as the main Trust now appears to do, provide that no distribtuions could be made until the the beneficiary becomes an adult. Everything is, of course, governed by the terms of the Trust and no one can really advise you without first reading and understanding the Trust.

If you would like our assistance, please do not hesiate to call me; 310.478.2541.

Jon Reich

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