Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Florida
My mother drew up a trust for my brother and myself a few years ago. She passed away this past Sept., 2012.
One and one-half years before she died, she put my cousin (a quasi-accountant living in California; we're in Florida) in charge of the will and trust as trustee successor, which had been my position prior, till approximately April of 2011.
She left me all of her jewelry in her deposit box (only she and I had keys along with a lot of paper work). And she had told me about an annuity that was being handled by a different stock broker than all the rest of her investments were. My name was and still is on that particular annuity (originally drawn up in 1988) as the successor trustee.
The attorney my mother used to set up the trust is the same lawyer that my cousin, the "accountant," chose to have finalize mom's will and trust. The lawyer has asked me to "sign a form that his office girl filled out for me" that transfers the power of attorney from me to him so that he could add it to the rest of the trust monies. I don't think I should do that and didn't.
I called the annuity company holding the annuity in my name and they said that my name still appears as trustee successor. I want to send for a partial amount of that annuity and hire an attorney and accountant to find out what is really happening with this trust and will.
The lawyer claims that monies of my mother's will (not counting the $59,000 annuity in my name) that I have figured was worth approximately $100,000 originally has now wheedled down to $24,000--of which $23,000 is promised out to two of my kids and my mother's housekeeper.
I kept all the original paperwork of everything that came to my mother's home since the day she died as I changed her address to mine and I "fed" the information to the attorney as needed and kept note of it all for future reference. The figures just don't match up. They also never gave me any form of breakdown of what things cost and what is left etc.
My big question now is the annuity. Can you advise me at all? Am I in big trouble for taking the annuity funds and then consulting professionals with those partial funds?
Thank you ever so much for your time and assistance,
Sincerely yours,
Roberta Casper
1 Answer from Attorneys
Not sure that he is the successor trustee - are you sure he was only named in the event that you did not wish to act in that capacity. Further did your mother have all her wits about herself - if she was unduly influenced and now the "cousin" is cleaning out her assets, this may be a matter to litigate. I suggest you find an attorney who litigates trusts and get some real assistance in this matter. take the docs with you as everything will need to be documented and a time line of events drawn up to really understand what has happened. In the meantime, tell the attorney for your cousin that you have opted to seek counsel in this matter and will not sign anything at this time.
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