Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Washington
A trust that was left to me from my late Great Grandfather; my father was appointed as the trustee. To my knowledge the monies in the trust were still held at the financial institution - that was until my mother asked me (when I was starting college) what I did with the money, I had completely forgotten about the trust until that point. In speaking with my mother and review of my parents dissolution paperwork I learned my father was ordered by Superior Court to turn over all trust monies to me. When I called the financial institution I learned all trust accounts had been closed. After learning this information my mother retrieved the old banking statements for my trust account she had retained and allowed me to review them. Once I began going over the documents I learned that one month after the monies were deposited into the trust account my father had nearly depleted the account. In addition he continued to use the accounts to cover overdrafts in his personal checking account as well as use the accounts (also overdrawing MY trust accounts in the process) for everyday or at minimum frequent use. In addition to this he also was ordered by Superior Court to turn over a college fund that was set up for me; he never did this and the account has since been depleted and closed. In addition to these I also had a stock account with McDonalds Stock Corp. gifted to me by my maternal Great Aunt with my mother as the trustee. The stocks were sold in February of 2003 by my mother and put into my trust account so I could use them for my college (she had no idea my father had been taking the money - she was not on that trust account and had no access to its information). The money that was deposited from the sale of my stock was also taken out of my trust account by my father. I have tried to collect these funds from my father by way of asking him to repay the money to me and his response has continued to be "I used that money to buy things your Mother was awarded in the divorce so you'll have to talk to her about that". I have a meeting with the financial institution in the morning to put a formal request in for all account documents (copies of checks, transaction history, detailed deposit information, etc.) I also plan to go to the county to obtain a copy of my Great Grandfather's will. For purposes of possible statue of limitation - the trust was set up September of 2001 and the court order (ordering he surrender the monies to me) was placed December of 2003; I turned 18 September of 2003. I am wondering what my options are for taking legal action to collect the money that is owed to me. These monies were set up to be used for my college education - being a college student it is hard to pay tuition when my "trustee" took the money that was intended to fund my education. I appreciate any assistance anyone may be able to provide to me in this matter.
1 Answer from Attorneys
You provide a lot of information which is helpful. One question though: when did you learn of this? You said you didn't know until you mother asked you when you started college what you did with the money in the trust. When did you start college? When did you discover what your father did?
Generally there is a 3 year statute of limitations tfor breach of a trustee of his fiduciary duties, which includes the time from when the alleged breach was discovered. If that was more than 3 years ago, it still may be worth a meeting with a trust litigator, however, to check ways around that.
If you have further questions feel free to contact me as we regularly work in the areas of trust and estate disputes.
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