Am I allowed to pay myself back now that I am trustee from the former trustee that stole my inheritance?

[Tiffanyy808]

Washington and maybe Hawaii?
The original trustee of my mother’s estate spent the cash portion of my inheritance and spent it on his personal expenses. I am now successor trustee because he was forced to resign when it was discovered he is a felon and felons are not able to be trustees in Washington.. I accepted the position of Successor Trustee and there is no cash left in the estate , but there is a income generating real property still held in the estate which is where we receive our monthly incomes. . The property is still held in the trust and I am hesitant to distribute it and get the deeds written up in our individual names because he owes me the money and he refuses to pay it back to me.

Now that I am trustee can I request that his monthly checks be paid to me until the money he spent is paid back?

He is pressuring me to close the estate and distribute the property equally to him and I, as it states in the trust. Is this a legitimate reason for me to keep the estate open until i am paid back? Or could I have the deeds made giving myself a larger percentage of the real property? Would I need a court order of some type or am I allowed to do this as the trustee? The trust was created in Washington state , I live in California and the real property is located in the state of Hawaii.

 

[HRZ]

Was he found by the court to have dipped into your portion of the estate or trust ....or was he merely removed because of his felon status . What specific determination was made that he owes you $XX

You might do better to employ counsel to assist you as trustee...of course those expenses should come off the top of trust income before you or he get your slice

Not clear if he raided the estate or the trust?

 

[HRZ]

Also look at WA statutes as to trustee fees ...you may be able to take a slice off the top for doing the work PLUS an extra fee for extraordinary work ...keep exquisite time logs for every task you perform for the trust.

 

[LdiJ]

Washington and maybe Hawaii?
The original trustee of my mother’s estate spent the cash portion of my inheritance and spent it on his personal expenses. I am now successor trustee because he was forced to resign when it was discovered he is a felon and felons are not able to be trustees in Washington.. I accepted the position of Successor Trustee and there is no cash left in the estate , but there is a income generating real property still held in the estate which is where we receive our monthly incomes. . The property is still held in the trust and I am hesitant to distribute it and get the deeds written up in our individual names because he owes me the money and he refuses to pay it back to me.

Now that I am trustee can I request that his monthly checks be paid to me until the money he spent is paid back?

He is pressuring me to close the estate and distribute the property equally to him and I, as it states in the trust. Is this a legitimate reason for me to keep the estate open until i am paid back? Or could I have the deeds made giving myself a larger percentage of the real property? Would I need a court order of some type or am I allowed to do this as the trustee? The trust was created in Washington state , I live in California and the real property is located in the state of Hawaii.

Are you talking about an estate or a trust? Its one or the other. Estates do not have trustees.

In any case, any income being produced by the real estate should be going into the trust or the estate. Neither one of you are entitled to any cash from the estate or trust until all of the debts are paid off, including the debt to you. Therefore why are there monthly checks at this point? However, if the probate court (if its an estate) or the court that removed him as trustee (if its a trust) has not recognized the debt to you then that is a problem.

 

[HRZ]

AS a rough measure, about how much in $ was raided per your math from your inheritance ?

 

[Tiffanyy808]

Washington and maybe Hawaii?
The original trustee of my mother’s estate spent the cash portion of my inheritance and spent it on his personal expenses. I am now successor trustee because he was forced to resign because he wasn’t allowed to be a trustee because he’s a felon. I accepted the position of Successor Trustee and there is no cash left in the estate , but there is a income generating real property still held in the estate which is where we receive our monthly incomes. . The property still held in the trust and I am hesitant to distribute it and get the deeds written up in our individual names because he owes me the money and he refuses to pay it back to me.

Now that I am trustee can I request that his monthly checks be paid to me until the money he spent is paid back?

He is pressuring me to close the estate and distribute the property equally to him and I. Is this a legitimate reason for me to keep the estate open until i am paid back? pays me back? paid back? Or could I have the deeds made giving myself a larger percentage of the real property? Would I need to a court order of some type or am I allowed to do this as the trustee? The trust was created in Washington state , I live in California and the real property is located in the state of Hawaii.

AS a rough measure, about how much in $ was raided per your math from your inheritance ?

About $100,000. His portion of the real property has a fair market value of at least $2,000,000. He receives $10,000 to $12,000 monthly in rent from that property.

 

[Tiffanyy808]

Are you talking about an estate or a trust? Its one or the other. Estates do not have trustees.

In any case, any income being produced by the real estate should be going into the trust or the estate. Neither one of you are entitled to any cash from the estate or trust until all of the debts are paid off, including the debt to you. Therefore why are there monthly checks at this point? However, if the probate court (if its an estate) or the court that removed him as trustee (if its a trust) has not recognized the debt to you then that is a problem.

 

[LdiJ]

About $100,000. His portion of the real property has a fair market value of at least $2,000,000. He receives $10,000 to $12,000 monthly in rent from that property.

You need to consult an attorney. You do not understand the duties of a trustee or estate representative. Its likely that neither one of you should be receiving checks at all at this point.

 

[Tiffanyy808]

It is a trust. The court wasn't involved in my brother being removed as trustee. A lawyer made out the papers for his resignation that were notarized.The property in the trust is leased to a restaurant and they have continued to pay rent every month. I was going to sue my brother for the debt, but the lawyer was charging $20,000 to more than $40,000 to take it to court. Could not afford it. I have not taken any additional legal steps to get my money back. I was hoping that as successor trustee, i had the power to take 25

 

[LdiJ]

It is a trust. The court wasn't involved in my brother being removed as trustee. A lawyer made out the papers for his resignation that were notarized.The property in the trust is leased to a restaurant and they have continued to pay rent every month. I was going to sue my brother for the debt, but the lawyer was charging $20,000 to more than $40,000 to take it to court. Could not afford it. I have not taken any additional legal steps to get my money back. I was hoping that as successor trustee, i had the power to take 25

I am not suggesting that you hire an attorney at this point, I am suggesting that you consult with one, which mean paying for an hour or two of the attorney's time, to help you understand what you do or do not have the right to do.

I will say however that 1/2 of what he took would have eventually been his anyway. In addition, trustees are usually entitled to a fee for the work that they do for a trust, therefore a bit more might have been his as that fee as well. The trust should be receiving the income from the properties and then should be making distributions as appropriate within the trust instructions. If you consult an attorney you may possibly find that the money he received could be considered to be an advance of some sort from the trust and therefore you could perhaps stop distributions to him to repay that advance. However, you need to consult a local attorney about that.

 

[Tiffanyy808]

It is a trust. The court wasn't involved in my brother being removed as trustee. A lawyer made out the papers for his resignation that were notarized.The property in the trust is leased to a restaurant and they have continued to pay rent every month. I was going to sue my brother for the debt, but the lawyer was charging $20,000 to more than $40,000 to take it to court. Could not afford it. I have not taken any additional legal steps to get my money back. I was hoping that as successor trustee, i had the power to take 25percent of his monthly check to pay his debt. Do i need a court order or permission to do this? Would i have to hire a lawyer and do you have any idea how much this will cost? I have all the accounting bookwork from the trusts c.p.a. as to where all the money went.

Was he found by the court to have dipped into your portion of the estate or trust ....or was he merely removed because of his felon status . What specific determination was made that he owes you $XX

You might do better to employ counsel to assist you as trustee...of course those expenses should come off the top of trust income before you or he get your slice

Not clear if he raided the estate or the trust?

He was removed because of his felon status by a lawyer. I determined that he owed me money by going through the accounting bookwork given to me by the trusts c.p.a.
I did go to a lawyer and it was going to cost between $20,000 to $$40,000 or more depending on how long it dragged on. After $10,000. I was discouraged and told the lawyer to forget it.

 

[HRZ]

Your post is a bit unclear if brother raided the estate or raided the trust , but it leans towards he raided the estate . I doubt you can lawfully use the trust to square up problems with who did what with estate . BTW who was /is executor

If the estate was raided why did not executor seek recovery. $40000 to recover $100000 , adjusted for odds of prevailing Is not such a bad expenditure compared to the certainty of getting nothing by doing nothing.

Right now it is merely your math that he raided $100,000 . If he was executor and raided the funds you may have other options to force an accounting .

It makes little sense that he or you get 1/2 each of the rents at this time ..unless the trust mandates otherwise , you should be setting aside funds to pay all your possible commissions and costs of administration of the trust and most likely using counsel to assist you. Look at it this way , 1/2 of every legitimate expense the trust pays comes out of his share.

 

[HRZ]

It is likely that WA commissions are not a stepped % of pot as is common elsewhere but are based on actual time and nature of the task ......so darn good records may help......if you wind up spending 300 hours at an average of $50 hr , it's not a lot and it's taxable income to you ...but smile knowing 1/2 was paid out of brothers share .

 

[TigerD]

About $100,000. His portion of the real property has a fair market value of at least $2,000,000. He receives $10,000 to $12,000 monthly in rent from that property.

For the kind of money you are talking about, you need an attorney personally and for the trust. And you now need a forensic account to determine losses or theft. Then you need to consult with the attorney about remedies - you may need to refer this criminally; you may be able to resolve it civilly.

If you do anything without consulting an attorney, you are not making sound decisions.

TD

 

[LdiJ]

For the kind of money you are talking about, you need an attorney personally and for the trust. And you now need a forensic account to determine losses or theft. Then you need to consult with the attorney about remedies - you may need to refer this criminally; you may be able to resolve it civilly.

If you do anything without consulting an attorney, you are not making sound decisions.

TD

I think involving two attorneys is serious overkill at this point. I also think that getting a forensic accountant involved is overkill at this point. All of that could possibly be necessary in the future but at this point it would be throwing good money after bad.

What the OP needs right now is a consult with an estate/probate attorney to understand what can and cannot be done, and then he needs to make decisions from there.