Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California

As trustee you have the duty to identify and collect all your mother's assets, including amounts that your sisters owes or owed your mother. This can be offset from any inheritance your sister would otherwise be entitled to. You also have the duty to pay the debts (including taxes) that your MOTHER owed or her estate now owes. That generally means that you do not have the obligation to the the IRS money your sister owes the IRS. You then have the obligation to distribute the trust in accordance with the trust terms. If your sister owes or owed money to your mother or her estate it may be appropriate to distribute less to her and more to other beneficiaries. Also, look at California Probate Code Section 16061.7 . This section details your immediate obligations to the beneficiaries, including delivering to each beneficiary and intestate heir certain information. Our firm has staffed offices in northern and southern California. If you would like our assistance with this matter please do not hesitate to contact us at 916-235-8700 x 123. As always, this posting does not constitute legal advice and should not be relied on as such by you or anyone else. Jim.

With respect to what your sister "stole", as Trustee you are required to collect on all obligations to your mother's estate, including that one. If you sister is agreeable you can, with appropriate documentation, just offset the amount due against your sister's share of the estate. If she does not agree, you should consider going to Court in order to protect yourself from any later claims. With respect to your sister's IRS issues, those are not really your concern unless the IRS has placed liens and/or served a levy that would require you to pay them instead of your sister. This could also impact how you deal with the amount your sister owes back to the estate.

We would be glad to assist you with this matter. Please feel free to call me at 310.478.2541.

Jon Reich

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