Privately Administered Trust?

[stockton]

CALIFORNIA

I received this reply from an attorney representing a Trustee:

Q: has an order for final distribution been made?

A: The trust is being administered privately, so there is no court order for anything at this time. To date, the only court involvement will be when we file our petition for [the Trustee] to resign and for approval of his second accounting,

My questions:
1. what does he mean “administered privately”?
2. does the superior court have jurisdiction over the Trust pursuant to 17000. (a) or other?
3. How can they submit a second accounting if i only received a summary of account and not a first full account?

[tecate]

An order for final distribution is made for a probate estate, which is subject to administration under the supervision of the court. Unless authorized by the probate code, all acts by a probate executor or administrator must be preapproved by the court, and even then, all acts not preapproved will eventually be passed on by the court.

A trustee does not need to get court permission to act, and has other methods to be discharged from liability. But in some situations, a trustee may want the finality of a court order, such as to cut off liability for the acts that will be presented in the second account, as the attorney has promised. Probate Code Section 17200 is the basis for such a court request.

A summary of account is usually the title of the face page. (See P.C. 1061) Are you saying that you did not get the supporting schedules?

[stockton]

yes.

i did get other pages that state: schedules.

that is most likely the trick of this game i am forced into.

it would have been so proper for the trustee to explain that rather than have me ask and ask again for the full report.

i was not satisfied with the report but as it was implied to be a "summary" i expected (wrongly) that a "full" report would issue detailing the specific items in question.

all so clever of the judicial system to allow such artifice by legislative form.

thank you for yr reply.

i have petitioned to remove the trustee and hope to stop the second accounting at the same time.

[Dandy Don]

On what grounds are you wanting the trustee removed and why would you want to stop an accounting?

[stockton]

the trustee announced he quit. his atty verified that by letter.

the two of them have been deliberately indifferent or worse at times.

the second accounting should have been settled last year as they said it would.

i believe they are hoping for the three year statute of limitations to pass for some foul act they have done.

i feel i can do an accounting as well as they can and the sooner i get control out of their hands the better.

the trustee quit in july. and still they havent notified the court.

it wasnt a complicated estate. mere $100k