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trustee is thief

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izzie01

Member
What is the name of your state? mn, but trust/parent/steparent in AR
Father and stepmother married 21 yrs. Father died 5 yrs ago, she died 1 year ago. I am my fathers only child and stepmother had 1 son, 1 daughter all adults at time of marriage. Revocable trust set up before father died.

Long story short. I will try to put in as few details as possible. Trustee is a theif/alcholic/mess/liar/stepbrother. Trust to distribute 1/3 to stepbrother, stepsisters children, my son. (there are other assests no included in this 1/3 distribution)Stepbrother has been stalling distribution with numerous excuses. First stepbrother (SB) it was getting stuff done by accountant, had to file taxes for estate. Then its...blah, blah, blah. Then says he has lung cancer been sick. I contacted his sister to let her know about this (he didn't want her to know, they don't like each other. She confronted him...didn't beleive this excuse, (she lives 100 miles away from him)SB told her same Dr. that treated Dads(their stepfather) cancer, well she called hospital, that Dr retired 3 years ago...so we know he is lying. .(they were other things that lead to not believing cancer)..She went to his rented house and demanded records of trust bank account. He has been paying rent, girlfriends cell phone ($700 per month) liquor store, numerous cash with draws, just one great big party! Never got taxes done, never anything to an accountant. He been saying all along don't worry, how dare we accuse him of wrong doing, everything is just fine. (Just a note, he was stable, married, on the wagon for years when made trustee but is now divorced and a mess, no children, thank god)

Anyway..as of yesterday SS had everything tunred over to her legally as the new trustee.SB even had the nerve to withdraw $300 after meeting at bank and she had to get some papers signed elsewhere before account got frozen bank manager said there was nothing he could do until everything signed. There are many more horror stories to this but too long. I just don't know if we can trust her now...The stepbrother owes about 10,000 to the trust, he used up his 1/3 and then some. He does get royalties from mineral rights, we are probably going to go after that until he has paid. SS will now get checks and disperse $ to him....SS and I plan to deduct what he owes trust from royalties.


A question. The trust paperwork was filed with the bank and the bank allowed obviously fradulent charges against account. I called the bank a few weeks ago and notified them I thought the trustee was mis-handling $ and wanted account frozen until we could do something about SB. Do they have legal obligation to monitor account at all?

SS has in her possesion some very expensive jewlery and art glass that hasn't been sold yet. The trust didn't mention anything about it going to anyone, just all assests to be sold and divided in 1/3. Now she is claiming she found a letter with jewlery going to certain people (her and her children) but that letter was written years before the trust was set up so doesn't the trust supercede the letter. She lives in another state and now is the new trustee. How can I make her follow the trust and not some really old letter? (jewlery in excess of 15,000 retail) I am trying to keep on good terms, don't want to start big fight (She is very wealthy)She has always wanted that jewlery and not shy about saying so but it was not left to her. The most expensive stuff was purchased during their (father and stepmother) marriage, I don't want to make any claim to her grandmothers jewlery her mom had in her possesion not worth that much and think it's right for her to have it....What to do?What is the name of your state?
 
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Dandy Don

Senior Member
Bank has no legal obligation to monitor the account.

Of course he turned everything over to stepsister--he has stolen as much money as he can and now he's going to leave the mess to her to straighten out.

You need to be consulting with a trust attorney to find out what your next step should be. Maybe the law permits you as a trust beneficiary (or your attorney on your behalf) to request a copy of the trust, plus an accounting statement for each year the trust has been in existence, by sending him a certified letter. You may also have the right to request an audit (which the trust pays for).

The loan from the trust is illegal and a serious breach of fiduciary duty. Your attorney may want to bring a lawsuit against the trustee for this unless there is some other way to resolve this.

You or your attorney will also need to look at the probate file to see how the estate was handled and if he provided an accounting.

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])
 

izzie01

Member
I do have a copy of the Trust, went down to Arkansas for reading of the Trust over a year ago.The Trustee (Stepbrother) never sent an accounting and never handled anything correctly. The new Trustee (stepsister) now has most everything as far as we know (did he turn over all records) In is drunken stupor he probably has lost or has no idea where everything is. When stepsister went to SB place there were papers all over the floor, beers cans lying in boxes of paper, hadn't picked u mail in 2 weeks from PO box. He is not working and was living off of Trust money. (He could make alot of $ (excess of $7,000 per month)in his profession but I have heard no one wants to hire him any longer because of drinking) I it is almost impossible to go down there, can't afford to fly at a moments notice and I could drive but that takes one day to get there and there is also the problem of getting time off of work. If it is essential I could go but really difficult. At this point I am just hoping SS will be honest and trust worthy. But the jewlery will be a problem with her...she was told at one time she can buy from trust at discounted price....but now has her hand on it, probably never see anything from it. Besides the jewlery thing I think I can trust her.
 

Dandy Don

Senior Member
Start consulting with an Arkansas trust attorney as soon as possible to figure out how to proceed.

Please explain what you mean by "obviously fraudulent charges" against the bank account.
 

izzie01

Member
I haven't received copies of statements yet. SS says he paid his girlfrieds cell phone=$500-700 per month. Numerous charges to liquor stores (at least 3 per week for the past 10 months), charges at a gambling place, his rent, his utilities, gas station, grocery store. He is(was) using it as his personal spending account....mind you he said he couldn't yet send my sons share because all of paperwork not done...whatever that was supposed to mean.
Probably have to get a lawyer...that will just eat up soo much of what is left. I suppose I can go after SB for these charges but you can't get blood out of a rock so should I even bother. From what I have heard he isn't working..I doubt if he will be around much longer he has just messed up his life so badly. It's really sad....
 

Dandy Don

Senior Member
At least find out from your attorney if you have the right to request the current bank account statement from the trustee (showing how much is in the account when she took over, to determine if there is enough left to distribute to the beneficiaries) and whether it would be advisable to ask a court to require the current trustee to post a trustee's bond to protect the balance in the account from further theft by the current trustee.
 

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