Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Illinois
If a trust is set up with 4 co-trustees and 1 of the co trustees wants to change the lawyer of record do all 4 have to sign off and agree the person who made the trust just passed away there is no executor
4 Answers from Attorneys
What does the trust say? Is unanimous consent required or majority vote?
No, unless provisions of the trust enable one co-trustee to make such decisions, which
would be highly unusual. Such decisions should be made by the Co-trustees, not one
co-trustee.
Just think of the problems involved if any one co-trustee could change the attorney anytime they wanted - every other week you could have a new attorney for the trust. All agree or majority rule is best way to go. Better yet, dissolve the Trust and divid the proceeds.
This just highlights the problem of having co-trustees, especially 4 trustees. Ideally, they would come to an agreement on representation. I suppose in theory they could have separate counsel, or if the dissenter is unhappy, then then that person should resign.
Bottom line is they really need to come to a consensus if they are going to work together as co-trustees.