In California.

My mother and her husband married 20 years ago. Each have adult children from previous marriages, but none together. They created a standard marital trust setup, which generally gave his 4 kids 50%, and myself and my sister 50%. After 10 years, my mom was 'coerced' (not in a illegal way) in to switching it so each kids got 1/6th. They lived in CA this whole time.

Fast forward, after selling the house and moving to assisted living, and then after a few years, ultimately to memory care, her husband passed away. As it turns out, NONE of the assets were put in the trust, except the house. There was one account that the trust owned, and it had like $6K and that's it. but other than the house and their working expenses, the rest of their money was in retirement accounts, which never belong to a trust and can't be distributed directly to a trust. Anyway once they sold the house, the money was put in a joint account, and then that money went to my mom when he died. That was the only cash they had. He had an IRA worth about $300K, and that went directly to my mom as the beneficiary. So now, all of the accounts are soley in my moms name. Her estate attorney stated that it was fine to drain the trust account reasonably quickly, since it went to her assisted living rent, and the terms of the trust were that it could be used for maintenance before being distributed per the death stipulations.

My mom now wants to essentially give my sister and I most of the money by naming us as the beneficiaries for everything, and essentially leaving his kids 'something small' like 40K each. To be clear, my sister and I are fair minded and also financially independent (good jobs etc), not greedy.

Also, there's nothing shady going on, at no point did anything underhanded take place. And until his mental incapacitation, he handled all the money, and my mom did not. He had simply not funded the trusts for whatever reason, intentional or not intentional, but this was true from the beginning, there were no last-minute shenanigans.

I don't want to get in to a lot of the family drama, but his kids never liked my mom, didn't come visit (other side of the country in Virginia), and they were kind of jerks to her. They came to his funeral a year ago, and haven't given her so much as a phone call or email since. (not really relevant, except as partially a way to share my moms motivation that there's no love lost) My mom also wants to ensure her 'bloodline grandkids' get as much as she can give them.

So anyway, as it stands, we will get a much larger share of their estate than his kids. The trusts are empty.

I don't know if I feel guilty or not, but it certainly would seem unfair if I were on the other side of the deal. I don't feel like we have much risk for any challenges, but I'm a little concern as to if they really have some grounds to challenge anything, and also is it moral to accept the money as my mother wishes to give it. Also, I am my mothers POA which is a precaution against anything happening to her but I don't manage her day-to-day, so I am exceptionally careful about not interfering with anything related to her naming beneficiaries, etc.

I did actually encourage my mom to consider splitting the beneficiaries to the existing and previous amounts in the trust, but actually she doesn't want to, and is very firm about it. (and to some extent I can't push too hard in to what might drive her decisions because I believe there were some 'issues' in their marriage as well re: emotional abuse etc., but I tread very very lightly in talking about that.)

I suppose I'm wondering how much guilt I should be carrying about us catching the lions share of their estate.

Hi, I live in Massachusetts. I'm the executor of my father's estate. After collecting my dad's assets and my brother and I signing the assent forms (we're splitting the money 50/50) my probate attorney sent everything to the court and told us it should take only 2-3 weeks. However, my attorney received a "citation" a week ago. Does this mean I did something wrong? Like forgot to add an asset or something? I didn't really understand what he said just that he thought it would be cut and dry. He says he's going to try and go to the court to clarify but I'm impatient lol and a bit worried I screwed something up. Can anyone explain this a bit better?

New Mexico. My father-in-law recently transferred his house into the revocable trust that he setup with his late wife a few years ago. My wife and I are the successor trustees and are trying to make sure everything is in order. My question is how accurate does the trust name need to be to avoid problems down the line?

Across documents, the names are as follows:

The original Trust document:

Walter Sobchack and Maude Lebowski, Trustees of the Sobchack Lebowski Family Trust dated March 6, 1998

The revised deed after the transfer:

Walter Sobchack as Trustee of the Walter Sobchack and Maude Lebowski Revocable Trust dated March 6, 1998

The revised property record as listed online:

Walter Sobchack Trustee Sobchack & Lebowski RVT

Is this going to be an issue when the time comes? I don’t mind paying to have it filed again properly, I just want it to be right. I’d ask the lawyer that filed it initially, but he’s not responding to emails this month apparently.🤷‍♂️

Thanks for any thought you have on the topic!

Mother died 2 years ago and sibling #2 was appointed trustee. Remaining siblings were never told of trust from mother, but found out from sibling #4, who was appointed medical surrogate. Trustee had not had any communication with siblings regarding status of trust, life insurance policies, or CDs. They have not been given yearly updates regarding use of trust money.

In January, $10,000 was advanced to the siblings after sibling #3 kept nudging the trustee. Finally, 8 months later, after many text messages, sibling #3 received two $20,000 deposits in the form of a personal check, not a check from a trust account. Sibling #3 was told their share was $50,000. Of the remaining 2 siblings, sibling #1 has received $20,000, also a personal check. Not sure what their rights are, or what the tax liabilities are.

Shouldn't they be entitled to an accounting of monies used and interest received over the 2 years since mother's death? Does trustee have a fiduciary responsibility to abide by certain protocols?

Hi my mother passed away last year and left an estate worth approximately 1.6m, I a (beneficiary) was left 15% in a discretionary trust, which is up to the discretion of my brother and sister (trustees) who i do not have a great relationship with. They stand to inherit up to 500,000 each, they own their own homes, have good jobs etc, i am on disability allowance due to a mild intellectual disability and i do not own my own house but i would like to. Where do i stand here? I have a long term partner and we look after kids in care.. As far as i can gather they can give me as much or as little as they feel like? Is there anything i can do about this? Probate has not been released yet, i have a solicitor involved but they are very slow getting back to me? Am i very much at the good will of my brother and sister or can i challenge their input this as i dont have much confidence in them that they will be fair about this? Thanks in advance for any advice. I live in Ireland.