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Removal of Trustee

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a80harley

Guest
What is the name of your state? Massachusetts. O.K. This is going to take some explaining. Since my Mother died several years ago, my brother has been Trustee for an irrevocable trust that I am the beneficiary of. It is supposed to pay for my health, education, maintenance and support. There had been times where he had not replied to any of my requests for months. I got so frustrated at one point I filed a complaint with the bar association. He was issued an official warning that stays on his record. (Oh! He is an attorney) After that he hired an attorney to act as a middleman between us using the Trust to pay for it. That seemed to work well for a couple of years. Then, just after Labor Day 2002 he stopped responding again. The attorney eventually got so frustrated in March of 2003 he wound up resigning. Since then I have made several attempts to contact my attorney brother with letters. The last was certified mail. Still no response. I would like to file a petition with the court to have him removed as trustee for failure to fulfill his fiduciary duties. I really don't care who administers the Trust as long as they are fair and consistent. What are my chances of success?? Am I approaching this from the right angle?? Most of the money I request is for my daughter and he has made it a past practice to pay these bills. Please help me!!!!
 


Dandy Don

Senior Member
Yes, you are approaching this from the right angle. It is very irreponsible for him not to respond to your requests especially since one of the purposes of the trust being set up was to pay for your health, education, maintenance and support.

How old are you and on average, how many times a year have you made requests for funds? Have you seen a copy of the trust? Does the trust specify how frequently that payments can be made or what the maximum amount is per month or per year that can be paid to you?

Did you and your brother generally get along before he became trustee? Only reason I could see that he might not want to respond to your requests is that perhaps you have been asking too often, unless he is just jealous and resentful that you are getting this money. Try to get some type of response from him as to why he doesn't want to assist in your funding requests.

You have a 90% chance of getting him removed but it is going to be a bit difficult in establishing valid legal grounds--although you are dissatisfied it is borderline whether or how much his actions constitute breach of duty. You might get more accomplished by having your attorney or some other third party discuss this issue with him by phone or in a personal meeting to see what your position is and whether he agrees with any changes that need to be made. If it goes to a lawsuit then it is possible he might be able to use funds from the trust to help pay his attorney fees, and that would deplete the trust fund and obviously would not be to your benefit since it would be using up monies that could be better used to pay you.

Consult with a local trust attorney to find out what your options might be (first consultation is usually free or very inexpensive), since it is a bit unlikely that a Massachusetts trust attorney would be reading this message board.

Also please clarify exactly why you are spending your money on your daughter (is it medical reasons? educational?, etc.)--don't get me wrong, you have every right to spend YOUR money in whatever fashion you want--I'm just trying to get a clearer idea of the situation. Is it possible he might not agree with the way you are spending your money and just doesn't want to tell you this?

Please visit your local library to find 1-2 books about trusts and check the table of contents or index to make sure that the topic of irrevocable trusts are mentioned, just to better educate yourself about what they are and what factors come into play when talking about removing/replacing a trustee, and you may also want to do internet search engine searches on this topic.

The website www.findlaw.com might give you access to Massachusetts trust law.

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])
 
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