If You Have a Trust

6 Dec 2023 · 1 min

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1:01

In this brief advisory video, Jerry Taylor addresses individuals who are beneficiaries of irrevocable trusts. He explains that beneficiaries have a legal right to review how the trust is being administered, including how its terms are applied. He advises beneficiaries to schedule a meeting with the trustee—whether an individual or a professional trust company—to discuss the trust’s operation. A key focus is understanding whether the trust provides discretionary or mandatory distributions of income and principal, which is determined by the trust’s language and should be clarified with the trustee or a knowledgeable professional.

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If you are the beneficiary of a trust, I'm primarily talking about an irrevocable trust, or irrevocable, depending on how you say that. If you're a beneficiary of that kind of a trust, here are some things that might help you. And the first thing is that you have a right under the law to review the administration of that trust. That's how it's being carried out, how the terms and provisions of your trust are being applied and used. Now, how do you do that? Well, you make an appointment or you have a meeting with the person who is the trustee of your trust. If it's a professional trustee with a banker trust company, you make an appointment with them and go to their office and talk about these things. And the first thing that you should have a good understanding of is whether or not you have the right to discretionary or mandatory distributions of the income and the principal in the trust. These things will be discussed in the language of the trust itself, but sometimes it's easier to talk about this with a person who has knowledge and who is actually carrying out those provisions. Find out