Trusts

[Jackston]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? TX
Family Trust is made. MANY years later dad
gets sick. Sonny boy does not visit dad. Dad gets mad, rightly so. I was told that dad wanted to kick sonny boy out of family trust. Dad is told it can't be done. I was told that he did change terms of trust such that sonny boy only gets interest from trust. Does this sound right/plausable? Everyone in the family has a big problem telling the truth so I never know what/who to believe.

[Dandy Don]

Yes, it does sound plausible. Dad could have made the change with or without the services of an attorney. If you have not received a copy of the rust you need to be consulting with a trust attorney to fid out how to get your copy from the trustee.

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA (tiekh@yahoo.com)

[Kiawah]

You left out some important information. You indicate that a family trust was made, which we might could assume you meant that the father was the grantor and also trustee of the trust (as a revocable trust), but you don't have all of the details.

There are both irrevocable trusts (where grantor has given up control of the assets), and revocable trusts (where grantor retains control of the assets and can change or dissolve the trust).

The specific text of the trust document is needed to determine exactly what could or couldn't be done. The type of trust, who is the father in regards to the trust, what the document says he can do, etc.

[Jackston]

I read about revocable and irrevocable trusts but seems to be disparities with the situation. If irrevocable cannot be changed or canceled without consent of beneficiary then I'm not sure how trust could have been altered to be interest only as this is a "change". If the trust was revocable then sonny boy could/should have been removed. Perhaps the case that my understanding is off.

[TrustUser]

as kiawah said, you really need to see the trust document, in order to answer these questions.

generally, the very first paragraph is the "declaration of trust". it should indicate if it is revocable or irrevocable, as well as the grantor and the trustee.