Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California

I'm the sole beneficiary of an irrevocable trust and I have presently gone through three different trustees, the present of which is indicating they wish to abdicate trustee duties and turn over the account to bank trust management. Would I be able to take over the trust administration? There is very confusing, contradictory language regarding uses and distribution of trust funds and efficacy of trust parameters vs. the amount of the trust itself. At present, I am dealing with a number of pressing bills and threat of an eviction due to no work for a year, so the money to help pay off these bills while I search for work would be helpful.


Asked on 2/02/15, 9:37 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Len Tillem Tillem McNichol & Brown

While I can't answer your question without reviewing the trust, it's not likely that you can be the trustee. Most of the time, when an irrevocable trust is set up for a person's benefit, the trust has certain restrictions on distributions either to maintain your eligibility for public benefits (a special needs trust) or to keep a beneficiary from spending all of the money all at once (a spendthrift trust). In cases like this, making the beneficiary the trustee could cause the trust to not work as intended.

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Answered on 2/02/15, 10:54 am


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