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Beneficiary of Trust in Texas

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GloMo

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? TX
Grandparents died and left a trust for my retarded uncle, who died last week. Their wills state that after his death, the trust will then go to their remaining children. My mother was one of those children and she is also deceased. In her will she left everything to me who she named as the executrix of her will (she gave my brother $1).

I called the bank that has the trust and they will not give me any information about the trust, except that it is still there. I have not been mailed an accounting on this trust fund in over 5 years. This bank is no longer going to handle trusts and we've been in the process of finding another bank to take the trust, but now my uncle has died and I don't know why they don't just dispurse the trust according to my grandparent's/mother's wills. They told me that one of my aunts (my mother's youngest sister) is the only person they can talk to, but I don't understand why. She was named as my uncle's guardian and that is all - she has no more rights regarding this trust than the rest of us. And I've been told she is getting Alzheimer's.

My question: What should my next move be? Should I send a copy of my grandparent's and mother's wills, along with a letter, to the bank president asking him to dispurse the trust according to the law or do I need to hire a lawyer?

What scares me is that one of my cousins is the district attorney in El Paso and she has managed to get her hands on most of the family's money and I'm afraid she's going after this trust, also. The last accounting I had was that it was over $300,000.

What a mess.

Thank you for any help!

Gloria Moore
 


Kiawah

Senior Member
When the grandparents died, a trust was created. Have you seen the wording of the trust document? And what does the trust document actually say about who will be getting the money, in what timeframe? The monies are part of the trust now, controlled by the trust document and the trustee of the trust, not the grandparents will.
 
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latigo

Senior Member
You “next move” should have been your first move! To seek and follow the advice of a competent estate attorney. It’s obvious that you are totally at sea here and you are not going to find land until you do.

That much money at stake and you are asking total strangers what is to be done? Geez!
 
Who is the Trustee of the Trust? Have you called that person to discuss the situation and to request a copy of the Trust? Or is that the bank?

Who is the executor of your Uncle's estate.
 

Dandy Don

Senior Member
It's difficult to know whether an actual trust document was set up or whether the money was just put into a "trust" account. The will and the trust are separate documents, and the will has no enforcement power over trust matters; the person who drew up the will probably did not know this.

What probably happened is that auntie got permission to handle grandfather's financial assets when she got the conservatorship ("guardianship" is an incorrect term since that applies only to younger persons). Your attorney can help you figure out whether she correctly got access to that money or not.
 

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