California- How can I receive the full Trust

[justalayman]

My uncle lived in California. I'm not in the Will because who ever is in the Will told him no foreigner can inherit in California.
That time (when he signed the Trust and Will) he doesn't know I live in California..

I guess it sucks your uncle took bad advice. It,doesn’t change anything.

[/QUOTE]
From the downloaded public (whatever was available) document I was able to see, the Witness who signed the Trust was foreigner and I know that guy is not even speaks English. I know my uncle had a hard time with English also.[/QUOTE]
And? The witness is not signing based on what is in the will. He is simply a witness to the testators signature. He is serving the same purpose as a notary public would be.

He had hard to understand the whole thing.

if your uncle didn’t understand something he should have sought legal counsel. The fact he didn’t doesn’t invalidate the document.

2 other guys from the Beneficiaries Group gave him some advise when the Trust was created. For me the whole Trust is very fishy. My dad, my brother and my uncle had a very close relationship and I want to represent my brother too. My uncle had 10 properties (9) here in California. Now everyone is his relatives.

, you cannot represent your brother because you are not a lawyer.

Thank you so much! This is a first positive advice I got!
I do appreciate any help. I just got my Aunt's Death Certification (email copy) from my Brother and clearly stated the death cause was Dementia/Anzelheim in 2018 and she died in the Conv. Hospital here in California. The Trust and Will was signed in 2015 and she had this already. I know she had, because my Brother told me. You can not die in this condition suddenly she had this disease or condition for a long time. Also her signatures on the Grand Deeds... you can't figure out her name on. .She was 93 when she died and 90 when the Trust was made. I can prove with her condition the Trust is not legal but I can't ask her relatives... They are with one of the guy from the Trust who is acting like a Trustee... All my Aunt's relatives are asking for money and this Trustee promised money to them after the Probate is done.
Thanks for your help again...

What does your aunt have to do with this? I thought this was about your uncles will.

Regardless, three years is a long time. Her condition at death doesn’t prove she was incompetent in 2015.


And you seem to be confusing the trust and probate of your uncles estate. They are two very different issues.

 

[robert_1959]

I guess it sucks your uncle took bad advice. It,doesn’t change anything.

From the downloaded public (whatever was available) document I was able to see, the Witness who signed the Trust was foreigner and I know that guy is not even speaks English. I know my uncle had a hard time with English also.[/QUOTE]
And? The witness is not signing based on what is in the will. He is simply a witness to the testators signature. He is serving the same purpose as a notary public would be.

if your uncle didn’t understand something he should have sought legal counsel. The fact he didn’t doesn’t invalidate the document.



, you cannot represent your brother because you are not a lawyer.








What does your aunt have to do with this? I thought this was about your uncles will.

Regardless, three years is a long time. Her condition at death doesn’t prove she was incompetent in 2015.


And you seem to be confusing the trust and probate of your uncles estate. They are two very different issues.
[/QUOTE]
_______________________________________________________________________________
Per the California Notary Handbook instruction:
When notarizing a signature on a document, a notary public must be able to communicate
with the customer in order for the signer either to swear to or affirm the contents of the affidavit
or to acknowledge the execution of the document. An interpreter should not be used, as vital
information could be lost in the translation. If a notary public is unable to communicate with
a customer, the customer should be referred to a notary public who speaks the customer’s
language.
https://notary.cdn.sos.ca.gov/forms/notary-handbook-2018.pdfThe Witness was a foreigner and he JUST signed a piece of paper.. He was instructed to sign. Interpreter wasn't present
______________________________________________________________________________
Yes, my Aunt still in the picture because my Aunt and Uncle made the Trust/Will together. My Aunt was sick with dementia that time and I will able to prove this.
______________________________________________________________________________
I know what is the different between Trust and Probate but the Probate can validate the Trust/Will if someone questioning...

Not everything is MONEY. Of course, I don't have money to waste, no one has. I worked hard for what I have not like the Beneficiaries in my Uncle's Will who milking him for everything.

 

[justalayman]

You really should have posted the entire section that you culled that excerpt from;

Foreign Language
A notary public can notarize a signature on a document in a foreign the notary public is not familiar, since a notary public’s function only relates to the signature and not the contents of the document. The notary public should be able to identify the type of document being notarized for entry in the notary public’s journal. If unable to identify the type of document, the notary public must make an entry to that effect in the journal (e.g., “a document in a foreign language”). The notary public should be mindful of the completeness of the document and must not notarize the signature on the document if the document appears to be incomplete. The notary public is responsible for completing the acknowledgment or jurat form. When notarizing a signature on a document, a notary public must be able to communicate with the customer in order for the signer either to swear to or affirm the contents of the affidavit or to acknowledge the execution of the document. An interpreter should not be used, as vital information could be lost in the translation. If a notary public is unable to communicate with a customer, the customer should be referred to a notary public who speaks the customer’s language.

Read the first line of the section

And note the should be referred, nkt must. Also, since you said it was simply an individual, even those rules do not apply. A witness of a signature is simply a witness


Then



Did your aunt and uncle have a joint will of some sort? If not, then your aunts issues have nothing to do with this especially since she predeceased her husband.

If it was a joint will, was it presented to probate when your aunts estate was administered? And if so, that would mean her husband attested to his signature and validity of the will at that time.


If you wish to undertake this, you do need to have extra money. Thousands of extra dollars (the last attorney i asked started at about $5000 and I live in a very inexpensive part of the country) that you can afford to throw away because if you don’t win, you don’t get anything back

And yes, this is about nothing but money. You aren’t going to make a bad person a better person. You aren’t going to change the world. If you prevail you might end up with some money and nothing more. Yes, it is about the money.

 

[robert_1959]

You really should have posted the entire section that you culled that excerpt from;


Read the first line of the section

And note the should be referred, nkt must. Also, since you said it was simply an individual, even those rules do not apply. A witness of a signature is simply a witness


Then



Did your aunt and uncle have a joint will of some sort? If not, then your aunts issues have nothing to do with this especially since she predeceased her husband.

If it was a joint will, was it presented to probate when your aunts estate was administered? And if so, that would mean her husband attested to his signature and validity of the will at that time.


If you wish to undertake this, you do need to have extra money. Thousands of extra dollars (the last attorney i asked started at about $5 and I live in a very inexpensive part of the country) that you can afford to throw away because if you don’t win, you don’t get anything back

And yes, this is about nothing but money. You aren’t going to make a bad person a better person. You aren’t going to change the world. If you prevail you might end up with some money and nothing more. Yes, it is about the money.

Thanks

 

[Taxing Matters]

Let's break this down a bit. Your uncle's wife signed the trust. Was it a joint trust, or solely her trust? If it was a joint trust, I assume your uncle also signed the trust, correct? Was the trust revocable by your uncle? Most trusts used in estate planning are indeed revocable trusts. And, just to be clear, your uncle's wife died before he did, right?

These facts matter because you are not her heir. If the trust failed as to her, you get nothing from that in intestacy. Even if her execution of the trust was invalid for lack of capacity (which I'll get to in a moment) the trust may still be valid for your uncle's part of it. It's how things affect your uncle's part that matters for you and so far it's not clear what her problems in signing the trust would have to do with challenging the trust with respect to him.

You mention that when she died she had dementia and likely had the dementia when she signed the trust. But understand that simply proving dementia is not enough to invalidate her signature. You have to prove that the dementia was severe enough to render her incompetent to execute a will/trust. Under California law the standard for competence is very low. All she had to know when she signed the trust was the following three things:

1. Generally who her close heirs are;
2. Generally what assets she's got; and
3. That's she's signing a document that gives her property away after she dies.

That same basic standard is used by many other states as well. You'd bear the burden to prove she lacked the ability to understand one or more of those 3 things to get her execution of the trust invalidated. That in turn means you likely need expert testimony to do it since you'll need medical opinion as to her condition at the time she signed it and how that affected her capacity. Those experts tend to be quite expensive and that will be on top of the other costs of litigation. And as I alluded to above, it's only worth doing if the challenge to her execution of the trust will impact your uncles side of things.

A trust doesn't need witnesses like a will does, though it's common to have the trust signature notarized. Notarization isn't required either, though.

A will does require two witnesses. Those witnesses do not need to read the will and indeed by and large they don't read the will. They don't need to know what gifts the testator (your uncle) is making. All they have to be able to do is see the testator sign it and know they are signing attesting to that fact. That's pretty much it. No knowledge of English is needed for that.

I don't mean to discourage your quest, but rather to focus your efforts on what really matters here for you so you can make informed choices about how to proceed.