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Trust-beneficiary death

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F

frosted

Guest
What is the name of your state? PA

A trust in PA (interest income) was set up by my great grandfather in 1955. He had four children. Two are still alive. It is to continue until all his children have died and then must be distributed. The trust beneficiaries are his childrens children, etc. My grand mother was one of the beneficiaries and passed in May 03.

My grandmother had 2 children- my father and his sister. My father passed before her and since he is gone, a bank contacted my brothers and sisters to determine if we are his descendants.

A long story, but my grandmother disinherited my father (and his children) years ago and her will leaves nothing from her estate to any of us - the children of my father. However, we understand that there is aother trust - mentioned above - that could not be part of her estate and that she could not disinherit him.

The trustee - a major bank went to great lengths to find us and now we are told that the Trust is in legal counsel. We have only spoken by phone. We only received a letter from them once to put our correct address and phone number on but it did not mention the trust, just that they were trying to locate descendants of my father.

What should we be doing now? We know from what our father said,that this is a big trust. They have never asked for our SS#, etc. Should we make a claim or just wait for the determination?
 


Dandy Don

Senior Member
Wait for the determination, but in the meantime:

Look at your great-grandfather's probate file at the county courthouse probate court to see if perhaps there is any mention of the trust (the name of the trust, the type of trust it may be, and who the trustees are). Even though probate of the will and the distribution from the trust are 2 separate legal/business matters that are normally unrelated to each other, sometimes there is an overlapping of assets and there is a small chance that you might find clues about the trust in the probate file. [Sometimes there is a mention of the names of the primary trustee (may be an estate attorney or CPA or some other individual) and the bank might have been named as an alternate trustee in case something happened that the original trustee could no longer serve, but if you happen to know the primary trustee you could perhaps contact that person to get more information about the trust if they are still living)].

You should also be consulting with a local trust attorney to find out whether you have the legal right as a trust beneficiary to request a copy of the trust document and accounting information by sending the trustee/bank a certified letter requesting said information (some states allow this and other states do not). If you do have that right you can decide whether you want to make the request now or later on or have your trust attorney make the request for you on his/her official letterhead stationery to make it more authoritative/official.

If you haven't heard from the bank/trustee within 30-60 days, then contact them to find out the status of the case. The only question I would have for the trustee/bank would be "Why is there a need for legal review when the trust documents would seem to be fairly self-explanatory?", and also, if possible, ask them the name of the trust and what type of trust is it. I would speculate that the review will probably conclude very soon and I'll bet there will be good news for you!!

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])
 
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