trust beneficiary

My mother died last year and I was supposed to recieve part of a trust she left for me when I turned 25. I have received nothing and my Father will not give me a copy of the will or the trust outline.

Where do I get information about Will or trust Copies?
I live in Michigan.

Thank You,
-Katherine

The Will, if admitted to probate, should be on file in the court house where she lived.

FEB. 12, 2001


DEAR KATHERINE:

How very irresponsible of your father not to keep you informed about matters that affect you! If he cared about your interests he would want you to know about these funds unless the estate has not closed yet or unless he thinks there is some reason you may not be able to handle the financial responsibility for this money.

According to the Uniform Probate Code, you have the right to ask your father (if he is the trustee) for a copy of the trust documents that affect you. The request must be made by letter and I would suggest sending it to him by certified mail so that you would have proof of delivery.

It would have more authority if you could have the letter written by an attorney or (inexpensively) by a "prepaid legal" service. If you happen to know the bank where your father banks at, you may want to check with the trust department at the bank because the trust funds may be held there and you could possibly get some information that way.

Let me know if you have any problems getting information and I can try to come up with some other ideas.

SINCERELY,

[email protected]

FEB. 14, 2001


DEAR KATHERINE:

I forgot to mention to you in my last message that you also have the right to ask for a financial accounting statement for each year that the trust has been in existence. Normally a statement is required for each year and that information has probably already been filed along with the trust and it should be just a simple matter for them to provide you with copies.

After you receive your information about your trust account, please consider compensating me (with whatever amount you think is fair) for my valuable services in informing you about how to claim these monies which you otherwise would not have known about. To get my mailing address, you can send me an e-mail message to the e-mail address shown below.

If your father still doesn't respond to your letter (within 1 week) and keeps stalling about informing you about your trust and where it is located, you really do need to file a letter of complaint with the probate judge or retain an attorney to get things going.

SINCERELY,

[email protected]