Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California
Three Trusts-Three Brothers
After the death of my stepfather my brother and I found three trusts. The original trust was written when my stepmother was alive, and two amended versions were written after her death. There are three of us: my half-brother (same mother), my stepmother�s natural son, and myself. I was raised by my stepfather since I was one year old. My brother is my stepfather�s natural son.
In the original trust my two brothers were the benefactors if both parents were killed. After the death of my stepmother my stepfather amended the trust to add me and disperse the trust to the three of us equally. In the final version my stepmother�s son was left out completely and stepfather�s natural son would get 75% of the trust and the remaining 25% going to myself.
My question is when the judge makes the final ruling, which version of the three Trusts will he most likely decide on?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Three Trusts-Three Brothers
Assuming that the trust was properly amended each time, the most recent version will be enforced. Most living trusts allow the last surviving original trustee to amend the trust in any way at any time prior to the trustor�s death.
Re: Three Trusts-Three Brothers
The answer depends. On many "A-B" type trusts, the half of the community property that belonged to the first spouse to die goes automatically into an irrevocable trust, i.e., a trust that cannot be amended, while amendments can continute to be made as to the suriving spouse's other half. So an attorney will probably need to read the original trust document to determine what effect the amendments had.
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