Trust and Estate Beneficiary Representation

I get hired quite frequently to represent a beneficiary or an heir in a probate or trust administration matter. This means my clients are going to (or supposed to) receive an inheritance from a trust or estate that is being managed in California. In these cases I am not representing the fiduciary (trustee or executor) as I normally do but instead representing the person who is in the position of very little control. When you get tired of not having your calls returned, not having your emails responded to, and just feeling completely in the dark that is when you need to hire an attorney to represent YOUR INTERESTS! We can represent you in all matters of trusts and estates from highly contested Court battles to friendly situations where our client just needs someone to answer questions.

In some cases we can even get paid when you get paid.

In some cases we can offer either hourly fee or flat fee arrangements.

We live in a society where people make bad decisions. Unfortunately there are a lot of cases where the trustees actually mis-appropriate funds from the trust.

Our Representation Services

We want to represent you to try and find those situations and protect you from more wrongdoing. However, in a lot of other cases they do not intentionally steal from the trust but make mistakes which can cost a beneficiary. It’s important to make sure you, as a beneficiary, have an expert reviewing the trustee’s work to make sure they are doing their job correctly. Hire an attorney to represent you to make sure things go smoothly in the trust administration process. We often are hired in “friendly” cases and we try to keep them friendly by making it clear we have only been hired to monitor proceedings and explain things to our client the beneficiary. Sure some of those friendly cases turn un-friendly but let us help you! In some cases we hire accountants to do years worth of forensic accounting work to uncover the thefts and in other cases we will bring in a litigation attorney to an file elder abuse case in the California Superior Court. In other cases we are hired to get a copy of the trust that a sibling will not share, demand an accounting, and if needed remove the trustee.

A sample of our beneficiary representation services:

• Obtain copy of trust or will
• Obtain copies of bank and financial records by subpoena if necessary
• Make sure inventories and appraisals done properly
• Monitor Court filings to make sure things are done properly
• Help negotiate settlements in probate and trust distributions (i.e. one kid gets the house and other gets cash but what’s the house to be valued at?)
• Be the go-between with the other attorney who often refuses to talk to you
• Show up in Court to represent your interests (don’t forget we can appear telephonically anywhere in California)
• Verify accountings are correct
• File responses and objections if needed

In short, REPRESENT YOUR INTERESTS!

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