QUESTION
What are the siblings' rights when one sibling is trustee and wants to claim everything?
Asked on Mar 02nd, 2015 on Estate Planning - Washington
More details to this question:
There are four siblings in my family. Our father passed away many years ago and mother passed away last week. The youngest sibling was supposedly put in charge of a Trust of some type and he is refusing to show his 3 siblings the contents of the trust. He simply states that "mom" gave everything to him. He took her car and moved into her house and apparently has access to all her finances. We were all close to mom and feel our brother is misleading us and possibly coerced her into a trust fund that excluded everyone but him. What rights do we 3 siblings have?
1 ANSWER
Thomas Edward Gates
Trust provisions have an annual accounting requirement to show Trust activities. You can file a request for a court order to compel the sibling to provide this accounting. If your other siblings think that there may have been undue influence by the other sibling, you may also challenge the Trust beneficiary designation. It may be worth for your to talk to an estate planning attorney about this matter. Most offer free initial consultation. Good luck.
Answered on Mar 03rd, 2015 at 10:34 AM