Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Georgia
My mother-in-law and her sister were the benificiaries of a large irrevocable trust fund($1.66m) from their late step-mother. My mother-in-law passed away on April 13, 2012. She died without a will or at least no will can be located. What happens to the trust fund? Does her share become part of her estate or does it all go to the surviving sibling by default? If you say that it depends on the verbage when the trust was founded, how would we go about finding out what that verbage was? The CPA firm handling the trust is not friendly towards or open with her family. Shouldn't someone from the firm have contacted her sons by now to at least come in and discuss it?
3 Answers from Attorneys
Of course it depends on the terms of the trust, and what the Trustee should or should not do is also dependent on the terms. They likely have no duty to start calling and having meetings with people who have no interested in the trust. Further, since it has been 10 days your complain is likely very premature. It is also not enough to tell us the firm is "not friendly." Certainly, someone (preferably the estate administrator) can pick up the phone to call them but that was not mentioned.
First of all, your expectation that calls would be made within ten days is unrealistic. Trusts and estates are not handled that quickly.
Whichever one of you has applied to administer the estate (what you would do when you can't find a will) would have authority to call the trustee. As for whom the trustee will eventually contact, they will contact people who have an actual interest in the trust. If you have no interest in it, and that is decided by the language of the trust. Most people make trusts for privacy so if you are not in it, you won't be called and they won't be discussing it with you.
You will have to review the trust language to know what happens to your mother-in-law's share of the irrevocable trust. Without seeing the trust its impossible to know, but typically the trusts provide that if a beneficiary dies then the share of the deceased beneficiary goes back into the trust to go to the remaining beneficiaries. Or it could provide that the share of the deceased beneficiary will go to the children of the deceased. Either way, this would not be you. The only person with authority would be the personal representative of your mother-in-law's estate and it is way too soon for that. If your mother-in-law had no will, then her spouse, if any, or adult child should contact the probate court regarding the probate of her estate under the state intestacy laws.
The CPA firm handling the trust does not have to be friendly. Again, the only persons entitled to copies of the trust are the beneficiaries. The personal representative can request a copy on behalf of your mother-in-law, but since she is deceased her estate may not be entitled to a copy if her estate is no longer a beneficiary. Since you indicate that your sister is a beneficiary, then she should request a copy of the trust. Requests usually have to be in writing.