Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Massachusetts
My question concerns my deceased husbands trust. He died 21 years ago ( suicide ) when my three children were very young. His family was quite wealthy and set up a number of trust funds. I was not a beneficiary, but my children were for specific categories, and other areas were " at the trustees discretion ". My children were quite traumatized by their fathers death and other issues re: their fathers abusive behavior. I was an assertive advocate for my childrens' medical and psychological health with the trustees. One of the trustees held a personal bias against the type of support I was requesting for my children and deeply resented my continuing requests. Last year, I began graduate school at age 60 and came across my husbands trust and will, which stated that upon his death, I was to receive income from his trust. To the best of my knowledge, this has not happened. I spoke with the secretary at the firm and she confirmed that there is a card in the file with my husbands name and account number, but beyond that, she is unable to tell me the status of the account. It is possible that my husband used his entire trust during his lifetime, but I would like to determine the accuracy of this assumption. The trustee that I have had to deal with holds a great deal of animosity toward me concerning my efforts on behalf of my children and has, on numerous occasions, lied about various issues. Based on this history, I do not believe that he would be truthful if he were to receive a letter from an attorney on my behalf requesting information on status of my husbands trust. Do I have any other options available to me ? Would it be possible for an attorney to go to his office to investigate this ? Any thoughts/ possible options would be greatly appreciated. Thank you ! Susan
2 Answers from Attorneys
An attorney if you decided it was worthwhile would force a complete investigation by filing a complaint in the probate court.
Please feel free to contact me without obligation to discuss your options.
First of all, I understand how distressing it must be to have uncovered the information that is reflected in your posting. I think we can reasonably assume that if your husband established a trust and provided income for you upon his death, the trust probably contained substantial "principal" and was likely not used by him (unless the trust had been made revocable, something that a person would not want to do if he wanted to reduce the amount of his estate for estate tax purposes. If we make these rather reasonable assumptions, it sounds to me as if the trustee has been engaging in the ultimate form of retaliation. There is a remedy and getting to the heart of the matter may require some digging and highly aggressive lawyering, which would include being in contact with the attorney/law firm that prepared the will and trust. You need not worry about the statute of limitations because you were never informed of the existence of the trust. The will is an entirely separate issue; unless it was revoked, it should have been admitted to probate and the estate administered. Again, there are questions to be asked. What I would be thinking more than anything is about the assets the trustee might have that could be looked to in order to collect a judgment against him for violation of his fiduciary. You should be in touch with an attorney as soon as possible.
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