Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California
My parents' bank accounts and house are in a family trust with my sister as trustee and all 4 siblings (including her) as beneficiaries. The house has been on the market for 5 years and never even received an offer. This trustee sister has lived in the house the entire time. She has never sent any annual accounting nor has she ever supplied the beneficiaries with a copy of the trust document.
I have had complete trust in her until recently when she recently revealed to me that after my father died, and she was briefly caring for my mom before I would again return to care for her (my mom had dementia), my mom withdrew her credit union account from the trust and made this sister the sole beneficiary of this account. When I have asked my sister for details of this, but she always sidesteps my requests. I believe she might have exerted undue influence on my mother as she also had financial POA at the time.
If she forced my mother to remove the funds from the trust to benefit her, is this a criminal act and if so, what recourse do I have? There were also 3 other sizable bank accounts that are still part of the trust, but I am not sure what the state of affairs is with those either. I want to go visit my parents' house, but this sister will no longer answer my emails. She lives there, but has not been paying any rent. Can she prevent me from going there to assess the state of the house and property? If it is not being well cared for and she is not handling the listing properly can I request that she be removed? There is a provision in the trust that prohibits any of the trustees from protesting the trust, but does that prevent a beneficiary from requesting that a non-productive trustee be removed? Thank you very much for your time.
1 Answer from Attorneys
First, you can petition the Probate Court in the county in which your sister lives, to request an annual accounting. If you have reason to believe that your sister is unfairly receiving benefits from the trust while the others are not, she, as trustee may be breaching her fiduciary duty of fairness. You may want to have her removed as trustee. Whatever grievances you have, you can tell the court!
As for this bank account, it would depend on whether your mother intentionally left out that credit union account while putting the other accounts in the trust. Quite honestly, I've had many clients who put most of their accounts in the trust, but want to leave one or two outside the trust, either adding one child to their account or list them as beneficiary. So that is not so uncommon. If you want to challenge this, you would have to show proof that there was some kind of elder abuse or misconduct. Did the trust list this account in the Schedule of assets?
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