Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Massachusetts

Thanks for your question...I am very sorry about your situation. You do in fact have potential legal remedies here. The amendment to the trust as effectuated by the family member can be challenged on one of two grounds: lack of capacity of your father-in-law to make the change in the trust, or undue influence. The first is somewhat self-explanatory (though lack of capacity must be established through the testimony of an expert witness). Undue influence is a bit more complex; it involves overcoming a person's will so that they do what they otherwise would not have done. Our courts have recently changed the law on undue influence. As a result of that change, it has become in some circumstances easier to challenge a trust amendment based on undue influence. Specifically, if the person causing the change to be made stood in a "fiduciary" relationship to your father-in-law (by, for example, managing his finances or his care) and benefited from the change in the trust, the burden would shift to that family member to prove that the transaction was not the product of undue influence. There may also be liability in malpractice on the part of the attorney who made the change (though the process by which that can occur is quite technical). Feel free to learn more from my web site, www.lawfang.com