Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California
My widowed father-in-law went to an attorney 3 yrs ago to draw up a revocable living trust in which he named my wife and her sister as trustees/co-executors/beneficiaries. His sister who lived on the property with him in a seperate residence was with him at the hospital when he passed. Her and her family immediately went to the house and removed anything of value before the trustees could get there. His sister also was a joint account holder on his bank account and now controls any (if any) money as he was upside down on everything. This is a very bad situation and the nominated trustees (my wife and her sister) went to the attorney that drew up the will to refuse anything to do with this. They declined trusteeship, beneficiary, executor or anything. What will happen now as the attorney will not tell us anything.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Since there was little value to his estate, your wife was wise to decline to act. She should execute the declination in writing and provide a copy to the attorney and to any successor trustee. Once she has done this, she has washed her hands of the affair and she no longer has any liability or need to worry further about the matter.
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I guess I wouldn�t feel lawyerly unless I wrote a disclaimer to this answer � after all, that�s what we lawyers are trained to do. So here it is. Disclaimer: Trying to provide a complete answer to a brief question without meeting the questioner and without getting all the facts is much like internet dating. Despite what you have been told by the person you�ve met online (and don�t they always put everything in the best light for themselves), once you meet them face to face you realize how much has been left out. People tend to bend the facts and there is always the other side to the story. So, this answer is about as valuable as the price that was paid for it. It should not be considered legal advice. It is meant as a general overview of how the law could apply to a very broad set of facts that may not have any applicability to the actual circumstances of the person making the question. It is hoped to provide some understanding of the broad field of law that could come into play. No attorney-client relationship has been formed with the questioner and no attorney client relationship was ever anticipated by my response to this question. I would also like to remind you that I am only licensed in the State of California, and the answer provided is based upon my knowledge of California law.