Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California
Removal of Trustee
Since my father's passing, his brother has been acting as ttee of the trust. The trust doc (which my uncle drafted) states that the trustee is to receive no compensation for services. He has used trust funds to pay his personal taxes, belittles my mother and wont give her monthly money. We hired an attoney and my uncle has been running us in circles for the past year and a half. We finally came to an agreement that he would step down in favor of a corp ttee of HIS choosing. The court stipulated that before finalizing our agreement my uncle would need to get acceptance from the new corp. ttee. At our 2nd mediation meeting he assured the judge and us that the corp ttee would accept the position. After 45 days of no activity, my mother contacted her financial advisor and asked for the status of the transfer. After giving no info to my mother the financial advisor called my uncle and let him know of my mother's questions. In response my uncle sent a letter to my mother stating that if she continued to interfere, it would delay the transfer. A few days later the corp. ttee sent a letter: they refused the trust and that they had never given any sort of approval. We cannot afford to continue fighting, is there any short cuts we can take?
3 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Removal of Trustee
No. I am assuming that the trust agreement did not give the Beneficiaries any method to remove and replace the Trustee. It sounds like you will have to pursue the remedy in court. You should pursue damages and punitive damages against you uncle for breach of fiduciary duty.
Re: Removal of Trustee
I'm sorry that you have run into one of the major problems in the legal system, namely enforcing agreements. I assume you no longer have the attorney you hired; contact that attorney and find out what they suggest you can do.
Otherwise, contact the mediator and see what they feel can be done. Mediators want their matters to settle so will follow up with your Uncle, who probably will ignore him, but it is worth the try.
Contact the Department clerk of the spercific jusge you appeared before, tell her/him you no longer have an attorney, ask how you can get back on calendar to appear before the judge as soon as possible. Tell the clerk if the Judgew stated when the transfer had to aoccur. Depending on what the Judge's Order stated, you might be able to set it for an Order to Show Cause why your uncle should not be held in contempt for not trying to get the corporation to be trustee.
If you are in Probate Court, file what ever type of motion the clerk says will get you before the judge ASAP to resolve the issue; you probably would be filing a motion to remove the trustee and enforce an accounting to show he has violated the law by taking trust funds for his personal use. Once you get a hearing, you must show the Court that he has intentional broken the law and mislead the court, not merely that he is doing a poor job as trustee as the court would merely set a hearing as to the later. Instead that he must be suspended and give the judge a list of at least three neutral corporations or experienced indviduals who you have discussed the trust with and who are willing to act as trustee.
Sorry, but if there were any real shortcuts, your former attorney would probably have used them.
Re: Removal of Trustee
Co-Counsel is correct, you should be able to have the Court remove the trustee. Why has your attorney not done so? What has been done in your favor?
Our firm specializes in trusts, etates and probate. Why don't you contact me directly so we can go over your situation in better detail and I can give you a better opinion of what you can do. Thee's no cost for the consult and if you need us to assist you we can work out a fee arrangenment that will not be too painful. I can be reached at the info provided by LawGuru or through one of our firm's websites such as No-Probate.com wher you can learn about us, what we do and a little about trusts & estates.
Namaste,
Scott
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