Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Pennsylvania

Did what she did comply with the terms of the trust? Consult with an estates and trust lawyer in the county where your dad and step mom resided or where the trust was sited to find out what your rights are. Take a copy of the trust document[s] with you so that they can be reviewed. You had the right to do this from the start of the estate.

THIS RESPONSE IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE, SINCE I DO NOT HAVE ALL OF THE INFORMATION THAT WOULD BE REQUIRED, AND I DO NOT HAVE A REPRESENTATION AGREEMENT WITH YOU.

* If the answers to your question confirm that you have a valid issue or worthwhile claim, your next step should almost always be to establish a dialog with a lawyer who can provide specific advice to you. Contact a lawyer in your county or township.

* Another reason for contacting a lawyer is that it is often impossible to give a good answer in the Internet Q&A format without having more information. The unique circumstances of your situation and things that you may not have thought to mention in your question may completely change the answer. If you want to be sure that you have a complete answer to your question and an understanding of what that answer means, establish a connection with a lawyer who practices in the area of your concern.

Anything which is not a crime or otherwise prohibited is legal. So that is not what you are asking. What you really want to know is why your step-siblings got more than you. The answer to that is - it depends. This may come as a shock but children have no right to receive anything from their parents. Your father obviously either did not engage in proper estate planning or else he put too much faith into wifey-poo.

A revocable trust means it can be amended or revoked. Revocable trusts become irrevocable on death, meaning that trust terms cannot be changed. However, this does not mean that trusts cannot buy and sell property or that the surviving trustee cannot make changes if this was a husband and wife revocable trust. Without looking at the trust, assuming ee-ville step-mother complied with trust terms and was surviving trustee after your father's death, she was free to buy and sell trust property and add to the trust corpus (land, personal property or cash). She was also free to change her will or disposition.

While I understand why you are honked off, no lawyer here can possibly answer your question of why the step-siblings got more than you without review of the trust. You are going to have to take the trust to an estate & trust litigation attorney who practices in the county/state where the trust is administered and pay him/her to review the trust and your step-mother's dealings after the death of your father to see whether the trust was followed. If not, then you need to find out who is the successor trustee after the step-mother died and whether the trust allows a beneficiary to go back and challenge the actions of a prior trustee. If you can, you then need to find out what this is going to cost. The step-siblings inherited money - you did not. Litigation is hideously expensive so you had better make sure that there is going to be money in your pocket at the end to make any challenge worthwhile.