disbursement of trust questions

[mlpelate13]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? IL

My grandmother has recently passed away and my brother is the trustee on her revocable living trust, do we need a lawyer to handle everything or can my brother cash out the cd's, bonds, saving accounts, etc and disperse it to the family as stated. Also the lawyer is stating we have to wait 6 months to allow my mother (the only heir) the chance to contest the will if she wants. She does not want to do this. is the 6 months required by law or can she sign something that states she will not contest? Also is this only for the assests in the will or does this apply to the trust as well? Everyone in the family wants the same thing, for the process to go as fast as possible so we don't waste money on the lawyer, real estate taxes etc. (I'm not sure what is in the will and what is in the trust, I think everything is in the trust which is to be divided 4 ways except the furniture, jewelry, stuff in the house that is supposed to be divided to our discretion.) One other question, does the house have to be sold first and the money be added to the trust before the rest of the trust is disbursed?

 

[TrustUser]

the trust only controls assets that it owns. the will controls assets owned by an individual, that has no beneficiary designation.

for example, a bank account owned by john smith without a designated beneficiary would be controlled by a will, and go thru a process dictated by probate rules.

in general, there is no waiting period for items in the trust. there are rules that need to be followed for a will, that is part of the probate process.