Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Illinois
Cd question
Trust Question
What is the name of your state?illinois
My uncle was power of attorney and trustee of a revocable living trust of his brother who passed away. There is no will.
My uncle who passed had given me a handwritten note stating I had CD's coming to me. I called the bank and asked about the CDS and they told me how to go about getting them. I guess the bank also called my uncle(trustee) telling him someone called asking about CDS.
He called me up raging that he is the trustee and there are no CDS. Everything is in the trust now.
I said i have a handwritten dated note stating I have CDS coming to me. He said the note is not notarized and is probably faked by me. Its Crap and Throw it out. Called me names.
If everything is in a trust including my CDS,
will that handwritten note hold up in court?
My deceased uncle called us Trustees of the CDS on his note and he signed and dated it. I have other documents with his writing so I can prove he wrote it.
I asked the trustee uncle if we have anything coming to us and he would not answer.He just snarled at me said he has accountants etc working on it.
If deceased uncle did write down we are remembered in the trust, how will i even know
What should I do?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Cd question
It's always difficult to deal with people who don't want to cooperate with a reasonable request, but unfortunately this happens with great frequency when money is involved.
The first step should probably be to contact the bank to see if there were ever any CDs in your name. If so, how were they titled? You will then need to determine what your rights were and how the CDs were transferred out of your name, by whom, and to whom.
If your name/social security number was listed on the account, the bank will have to provide you with this information.
Next, most trusts have a provision that states to whom and how often the trustee must account to the beneficiaries. If you are not a beneficiary under the terms of the trust, your uncle has no obligation to give you a copy or any other information regarding it.
I question why there is a trust and not a will. That is unusual. It could be possible that the will was lost, or simply hasn't been filed.
If you believe you are an interested party (are a named beneficiary of your uncle's trust) or an heir of the estate, you have the right to open a probate estate. Doing so would allow you to "discover" the assets of the estate and hold your uncle accountable for the distributions.
Before you do anything, however, I would strongly recommend that you sit down with an attorney to tell him/her your situation. Without all of the facts I am unable to give you a thorough answer to your dilemma, and therefore my answer should not be relied upon as legal advice.
Best of luck to you.
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