Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California
Trustee writing himself into Trust, Famous Case in Orange County
We're having a very difficult experience with a Trustee, doing things against our parents' wishes, and charging the trust an obscene amount of money to pursue legal matters that my parents are opposed to. What is the process and how hard is it to remove a Trustee? For some background, he drafted our parents' revocable trust when he was their trust attorney. They are both still living and tried to revoke him when he was just the power of attorney. He stopped being POA, and acts as trustee now since my parents were told they needed conservators. Since the ''trustee wrote the trust, and also wrote himself in as successor trustee,'' there's a conflict of interest there. I heard about a pretty famous case in Orange Co., where a trust atty. wrote himself in the document. Legislation passed to try to prevent that kind of stuff. 10 years ago. Could you tell me about that case? Could you please point me in the direction of that ruling, as I'd like to learn more about it.
3 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Trustee writing himself into Trust, Famous Case in Orange County
The attorney's name was James D. Gunderson. He was investigated and numerous stories were written about him in the various media outlets (LA Times, OC Register, etc.). He resigned pending investigation; the allegations were that he would write himself in as a trustee or beneficiary of his elder client's estate plans. As a result of the allegations, the Cal. Legislature was inspired to enact Probate Code Section 21350, et seq., which places restrictions on actions of a drafting attorney (and other parties). I have many of the articles about Mr. Gunderson or you might be able to find them by doing a Google or Lexis search. If you have an attorney, you may suggest that he or she examine the code section because many practitioners are unaware of it.
Re: Trustee writing himself into Trust, Famous Case in Orange County
Instead of trying to learn the law, you should hire an attorney who already knows it to help you out.
Re: Trustee writing himself into Trust, Famous Case in Orange County
You need to start with 3 years of law school and then take the bar exam before you will be able to independently understand and safely interpret the area of law you intend. You should hire an attorney at rather than throw it all away. Would you not hire a doctor and do surgery on yourself?
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