A living trust holds your assets and dictates how your estate should be distributed among its beneficiaries. Putting your assets into a living trust can provide additional privacy regarding your assets during your life and keep those assets out of probate after your death. While a living trust is amendable by the person who created the trust, known as the settlor, once the settlor dies, the right to amend terminates and the trust becomes an irrevocable trust.
A living trust is managed by a trustee; it is his or her responsibility to abide by the terms of the trust, keep beneficiaries informed about the trust, and make prudent investments with trust assets. If a trustee fails to comply with these responsibilities, beneficiaries can turn to the courts for help.
Contesting a Trustee’s Actions
Just like the heirs of an estate can object to the actions of an estate administrator in probate court, the beneficiaries of a trust can object to a trustee’s actions in state or superior court. Among the common complaints trust beneficiaries can assert against trustees are failure to keep them reasonably informed about the trust, failure to invest trust assets properly, using trust assets for the trustee’s own benefit, and favoring one trust beneficiary over another.
Addressing Changing Circumstances
In rare cases, a trustee or beneficiary may ask a court to change the terms of a trust. This is possible where it can be proven that a trust provision does not conform to the settlor’s intent, continuation of the trust under its current provisions would impair the purpose of the trust, or due to circumstances that the settlor did not anticipate, modification is necessary to achieve the trust’s objectives.
If you are the trustee of beneficiary of a trust that you believe should be modified,contact the attorneys of Gaslowitz Frankel.
