Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California

hello good day , my name is marra Wallace . my father died this last oct , oct 2 2012 to be excact . my father is a well known legendary jazz giant of the bayarea . vince is my father and best friend dedicated 5 decades to the jazz legacy tenor sax great my father was is . my father vinces mother my grandmother is the creator of this estate trust um, I have reason to suspect that me and my family,s eatate has been ripped of by a group of shady individuals . 1 the trust was set up by my grandmother olive k Wallace . mrs olive k. Wallace died in nov of 1984 and is the creator of a trust and will which we myelf and tw brothers ,the wallace grandchildren are the benificaries namedin the trust . . we each had separate accounts myself and my 2 brothers did the trust was set up a certain way where we the grandchildren received a portion when each of us has turned 18 . which we did and the remainder we split when our father passed . , this is how our grandmother had set it up . . our estate was maintained by the org atty hired by my grandmother for almost 30 years this was atty mary gerber of Oakland ca t from 1984 until 2010 when she retired . our trust was passed down in care to atty Katherine Montgomery come to find out she is the atty for the trustee of the Wallace estate janet was appointed to take the place for jack kreutz my grand mother ,my uncle and also the trustee of the Wallace estate . I thought atty Montgomery was to take the place forour estate s atty mary gerber . because she retired .but I recently was told by brush that Montgomery is her lawyer . not the Wallace trust atty . . Montgomery has shown little dedication to us reguarding trust information and who is in charge of trust assets . I was under the impression that janet brush was in charge , but she would not comply or even discuss my trust interests . r`e`d flag now 1 year 5 months was janets employment as trustee and over 40thousand is unaccounted for .the bottom line is a large amount of unaccounted funds are not paid to us and and its told to me that Montgomery is the atty for the trustee who was appointed to care for the trust janet brush . so the question is how can a trust be administrated if we Wallace grandchildren the trust benificiarys have no lawyer. because our grandmothers brother jack Kenneth kreutz died janet was appointed . the state of ca janet brush is a principal of a business called a senior alternative shes a clinical social worker and she was managing our trust through that business a senior alternative ..janet brush has breeched he fiduciary duty to myself as a beneficiary of the trust and I want to file suite . for over almost 30 years jack was in care of the olive k Wallace trust . although jack died he did a wonderful job making sure the trust was keeping progress accounts were maintained . mrs janet was only employed during her accounting period for a short amount of time and more then 40,000.oo is unaccounted for . janet refused to cooperate when I requested information about accounts managed in her care . she told me a once to talk to her lawyer Montgomery . a lot of vague unaddressed information and in return all I have not received and documentating or copies of petitions filed with the court or from the ending of the trust . I did receive a stack of billings for a lot of charges pertaining to hours of socalled service work for the trust . anyways I have been robbed and my brothers have also what do I do


Asked on 6/12/13, 6:03 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Charles Perry Law Offices of Charles R. Perry

Your situation is obviously very complex. You need an attorney to help you sort it out and figure out what to do, and perhaps explain certain things to you that are not clear.

The general process for problems with a trust is to file a petition with the probate court, to request whatever relief you think you are entitled to. The case then proceeds like a trial. When the trustee has behaved very badly, the court can in some cases order the trustee to reimburse the trust.

Do you have a recent trust accounting? This is a document showing the income and expenses of the trust, among other things. If you don't have one, you can probably ask. If you don't get one, then you can petition the court to require the trustee to provide you with one.

Because I want to protect confidentiality, and because I have not reviewed the documents or spoken with you, I cannot provide you with specific advice at this time.

There are many of us on lawguru that practice in the field of trusts and probate. I suggest you start contacting lawyers here to see if any of us can help you, and to find someone whom you can work with.

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Answered on 6/12/13, 11:41 pm


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