Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Tennessee

Is is a valid Trust?

You will need to review the law of TN or NC to determine the answer. However, you have two (2) signatures on a trust. If there is testamentary language in the document, you may ask a local atty about offering the doc as a will. In GA you have enough signatures to est. a valid inter vivos trust. Without reviewing the document, this Q cannot be answered completly.

Validity of a trust

In NC a trust does NOT require witnesses, so it MAY be valid (I'd have to look at it to make sure). However, the real question is, did she actually transfer assets INTO THE TRUST? A trust doesn't control anything that isn't IN it. Now, if all the persons named in the trust are ALSO all of her heirs (under the intestate laws), they may be able to negotiate an agreement as to how the property is to go. And the trust (if it's invalid) may the enough MORAL authority to get the heirs to do just that. You need a lawyer; these questions are probably too technical for a non-lawyer. And, in NC, lawyers' fees for things like this may be a lot cheaper than in many other states (from what I hear about such things).

Trust Called Into Question

I have not read the trust. Are you sure it is a trust? It may be a holographic (Hand-written)Will.. Therefore, a lawyer needs to be contacted to interpret the document. If the document is a trust but there are areas which are subject to interpretation, it would be a good idea to go to Court with a petition asking the Court to clarify any ambiguities. Just because your grandmother does not apparently have a Will does not mean that her estate cannot be administered in Court through what is known as an intestate administration. Finally, the beneficiaries' agreement concerning the trust does not make it any better a document than the language which your grandmother wrote into the document.

Sounds like a valid trust.

But you need to show it to a competent lawyer in your state.