Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Virginia
What do Trustee Fees cover? Is it a specific amount of time or work? What is considered acceptable additional reimbursable expenses? At what point does the "trustee" role end & the daughter/family role begin? My Mother died this past July. My sister was POA and Trustee of her estate. Both documents gave her complete control of my Mother's money & life--but neither one indicated what expenses are considered appropriate to be paid to the trustee out of the estate. My sister has been reimbursed for such expenses as mileage to drive the 10 minutes to visit her, total costs of all meals including one's at her own home and ones she ate when visiting my Mother at the hospital. My sister even charged her estate for my Mother's birthday party gits & decorations! I don't understand.....is this legal? What are the guidelines if neither document states Trustee Fees and reimbursable expenses?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Once your mother became deceased, your sister's POA became invalid
and a legal nullity and your sister would not have been authorized to collect anything based upon it after your mother's death.
However, if the trust in which your sister is trustee failed to outline a schedule of fees allowable to administer the trust, then the permissible fee schedule would likely fall into the category of what is reasonable under the particular circumstances of this particular trust(whatever a reasonable person might determine that to be.)
Yes, that's what happens when a particular legal instrument fails to cover all
of the important issues that it purports to deal with---and the resulting adverse
consequences for one or more individuals involved with the matter.
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