Q: a living trust, mom and dad passed, sister has taken living trust book with all the details, trust lawyer passed also
A lawyer helped my mom and dad with their living trust in 2005. my dad passed in 2008 and my mother April;2017
there are my sister, brother and myself, each of us was given the exact same copy of the trust. none of our copies contained detailed information about trust assets or final wishes. we did find another copy of the living trust in my mothers home. I only glanced thru it but it had very specific information about their final wishes and detailed list of assets. my sister took that book and retained an attorney. the split was 30% each for my sister, brother and myself with 10% going to several worth while organizations. when I tried to contact the attorney that had helped put the trust together this is when I found out he had passed at the start of 2017. should he have a copy of the trust? and what is the norm as far as retaining records or being able to access his records in this situation?
thank you for your time
tom
A:
The attorney that drafted the Trust documents and the estate plan probably kept copies of the executed documents. You'll need to contact his firm about obtaining copies. If he was not part of a firm that survived him, contact the bar association for information about how to locate his files or with whom to make inquiries.
The Trust instrument would have named Trustees (presumably your parents, while they were alive, but also successor trustees), who would be the person or persons charged with distributing the Trust assets when the survivor of your parents died. If the successor trustee is not you or your siblings, contact the Trustee or successor Trustee about trust property and the division of those assets and other trust matters. If the trust contained real estate, there should be a Memorandum of Trust recorded in the land records of the county wherein the real estate is located. The Memo of Trust would name the Trustee and possibly successor trustees and their contact info. Contact an experienced trust and estates attorney in your state for specific advice about your situation.
PS: My comments here are for general information only and are not legal advice about your specific situation, nor do my comments establish and attorney-client relationship between us.
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