Full question:
My father set up a trust leaving the farm to all of his living children and their descendts at the time of his death, my oldest brother was the trustee, this has been about fifteen years, my brother became ill, he tried to appoint a successor trustee without a vote of all the benefactors vote. He was told by his attorney at that time he could not do that without a vote. So rather then let us vote, he decided that he would sell the farm. I had to hire an attorney get a TRO, to stop it. We thought that with him spending money from the trust to hire attorney to do paper work to sell the farm, drawn up an abstract were all against what the trust said. this went on for over a year the judge finally handed down the judgment that we would all have to pay are own attorney fee's, and the trust would be paid back the legal fee's,sale bill fee, abstract and title fees. My brother died, he had cleaned out the checking account for the trust. And the courts states he has no personal estate. It took from April 1st,09 till after his death before we got the actual notice. Is there nothing we can do about any of this. Please advise.
- Category: Trusts
- Date:
- State: Missouri
Answer:
If a court has ruled that your brother has no estate (meaning no assets like land, money, or property), then there may be nothing to claim against, and you might not be able to recover anything. Since the judge determined that you are responsible for your own attorney fees during the litigation, it is unclear what you can recover. You mentioned that your brother cleaned out the trust's checking account; if this was done improperly, the trust might be able to recover those funds. If a trust company was involved, you might consider legal action against them for any failure to monitor your brother's actions, but this seems less likely since he was the trustee. Based on what you've shared, there appears to be no clear recourse available to you. However, I recommend consulting with a local attorney. A full review of your situation and related documents may reveal additional options.
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