Irrevocable Trust

[SmartBear]

los angeles, california

i am one of three primary beneficiaries of a poorly constructed, irrevocable trust that went into irrevocability, october 1997, upon the passing of one of the settlors, my paternal grandmother/legal guardian.

residential property (trust property) that the surviving settlor/spouse/trustee resides in, the same property i was to inherit, has been sold, or as my former step grand father (trustee) puts it, he has bought me out (sold the property to himself, even though he was already owner and it has no debt/mortgage), i have not seen one dime. his sole purpose for this sale was to see that his current wife receives the house, after he passes on, he's sure he will be first, as he is not in the best of health (he can't even drive after dusk).

needles to say, this was not my grandmother's (deceased settlor) intention. additionally, the surviving settlor/spouse/trustee (dirty rat former step grandfather) petitioned the court, a year and half ago for the purpose of providing residence for the remainder of the current wife's life, but after my aunt and i contested in legal response to his petition "to amend and restate an irrevocable trust, with the consent of some beneficiaries," he and his attorney didn't show up for the court hearing, . . we won by default.

to cut to the end of this chase, this time around, he's done this without any direction/instruction of the court or notification to me. i was made aware of the sale by surfing the net recently and then confirming the sale with a visit to the county assessor's office, in downtown los angeles. the title now lists him, still as trustee, but also the current wife as owners. is this legal, he just took this property from me?

 

[ALawyer]

The Trustee of a trust owes a Fiduciary Duty -- the highest level of faithfulness the law recognizes -- to the beneficiaries of the trust and may NOT engage in self-dealing. That's basic black letter law.

That does not mean he can not sell the property if appropriate, regardless of what you think the settlor would have wanted, but selling it to himself or his wife at anything less than fair market would be per se a breach of his duty as Trustee. Of course if he had a set of appraisals stating that it was fair market less commissions, that might have been sufficient to meet his duties.

Get yourself a lawyer and the lawyer will know what to do. If the trustee has acted unfaithfully, the lawyer might, in addition to trying to reverse the transaction and have him "surcharged", seek to have him removed as trustee and a successor named.