Expert: Janet Brewer - 4/24/2009

Question
Last fall my father died. He was a California resident, and had a revocable
trust  with one of my sisters in place as trustee. This sister is currently
estranged from ALL of her siblings. My father just couldn't bring himself to
make the change in trustee. Her ability to fulfill her duties is debatable, and
there really isn't a lot of trust flowing in any direction. It is sad. There are
far to many problems for all of them to be covered here. Maybe future
questions will have to be asked!
For now, my question is this. After receiving almost no updates, no
statements of intention, I received a packet of potential bills for upkeep of
my father's home. With the market in the bucket, it might take a while to
sell the house. My sister would like her siblings to share in the expense of
the maintenance of the house. Frankly, with almost no accounting, no
information, no trust, I am reticent to send checks. Conversely, just to be
done with it, she could choose to sell the home at a greatly deflated price.
Do I have an obligation as beneficiary, or does this absolutely fall into her
job description as trustee? Is there an easy place for me to gather clear
information about executor duties and beneficiary rights. I don't think she
has actually crossed any lines yet, but she hasn't been as forthright as we
had hoped. Thank you, for your time and knowledge.

Answer
I'm sorry about your father's death.

Whether you have a "legal" obligation to pay any of the expenses for the upkeep of your father's home or not depends, in part, on the terms of the trust (in most cases you would NOT).

As a practical matter, though, if there isn't enough cash in the estate to pay the bills and you want to be able to keep the house, you might need to pay some of the expenses.

Just because your sister is the trustee of the trust does NOT mean that she has the obligation to pay the expenses out of her own pocket.  She has an obligation to do what is "prudent" and that could mean selling the house at a deflated price if it keeps the house from being foreclosed on (in which case you might lose everything).

I absolutely agree with you, though, that you should find out what the assets of the trust were (bank accounts, brokerage accounts, real estate, etc.) and how much your father owed (mortgage, homeowner's insurance, property taxes, credit card debt, etc.) and how she's been using the money since his death.  I also agree that it would be a good idea to do this before you send her any checks.

I don't know of any "clear" information on executor duties (technically, you need to know the trustee's duties, but they're similar) or the beneficiary's rights.  You might try Nolo Press.  But in general you have the right to be kept "reasonably" informed about what's happening and she has the obligation to act as a "reasonably prudent person" would act with respect to the assets.  She has other "fiduciary" obligations as well.

All of this is spelled out in the California Probate Code, but it's in so much legalese you may not understand some of it.

Good luck.

This information is not intended to substitute for professional legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. You should accept legal advice only from a licensed legal professional with whom you have an attorney-client relationship.