Trusts offer a way for assets to be arranged and then distributed after the death of the grantor who establishes them, without those assets having to go through probate. Since probate is both lengthy and public, this means beneficiaries can get their assets more quickly and in a more private way. However, it’s not uncommon to find yourself in a situation where you believe that the trust doesn’t really reflect the true wishes of the grantor or is not being administered according to the intent of the trust itself. When that happens, it’s possible to contest a trust, but a trust contest requires the help of an experienced San Diego, CA trust litigation attorney.
A Trust Contest in San Diego, CA
Determine Your Grounds for Contesting a Trust
California law allows you to challenge a trust, but the process requires proving the specific legal grounds you’re bringing the contest upon, and you’ll need to act within certain time limits. The goal of the court is always to respect the wishes of the grantor, so if you wish to challenge a trust successfully, you’ll need some clear evidence that those intentions are not being followed. Here are some of the more common grounds you might bring:
Lack of Mental Capacity
It’s important that a person know what they’re doing when they set up a trust. They need to understand the value of the assets, know clearly who their beneficiaries are (and are not), and understand how their assets will be distributed. If the grantor was suffering from dementia, Alzheimer’s, or another condition that impaired their judgment at the time they signed the trust, you could argue that the trust is invalid. To prove this, you would need medical records, witness testimony, and possibly some expert opinions by mental health professionals who can testify that the grantor wasn’t thinking clearly when they established the trust.
Undue Influence
Another frequent basis for contesting a trust is undue influence. This happens when someone manipulates or pressures the grantor into either creating the trust against their true wishes in the first place or changing the terms of an existing trust or one the grantor is in the process of making. The California court will take any charge of undue influence quite seriously, but you will have to show clear evidence that this took place.
Again, witness accounts can be helpful, as can communications between the grantor and the person you believe had the undue influence. You might also be able to point to patterns of behavior that show a significant change in the behavior of the grantor whenever a certain person was in their presence. The person who has this influence could, of course, be a family member, but it can sometimes also be a friend or caregiver who becomes close to the grantor and manipulates them to establish a trust that favors them over the family.
Invalidity
You can also contest a trust in California if you believe it was improperly executed, which essentially means it isn’t legally valid. For example, a revocable living trust has to be signed by the grantor and then notarized or witnessed by at least two people who aren’t beneficiaries. If these formalities weren’t followed, you could argue that the trust is invalid. This sort of thing can happen when a grantor tries to establish a trust on their own without the help of a trust lawyer. It’s easy to make a technical error in these situations. Proving this simply requires showing that the document itself doesn’t meet the legal standard required in California.
Fraud
If you believe that someone lied to the grantor or deliberately misled them to get them to set down certain terms in the trust, this could be grounds for bringing a challenge. If there was information hidden from the grantor which, had they known it, they would likely have done things differently, the court will want to know this. Fraud can be difficult to prove, but if you suspect it, talk with your trust litigation attorney right away to find out what evidence you’ll need and how your attorney will use it to prove fraud.
Forgery
This one is pretty simple: you are arguing either that the grantor never made this document at all, or that they did sign it, but they thought they were signing something else. That means that trust is entirely invalid, and forgery is a very serious crime. It can be difficult to prove this, so again, talk to your lawyer and don’t delay too long because the longer you wait to bring a challenge, the harder it may be to find the evidence you need.
Contact a Trust Litigation Attorney
It’s very important to work with an experienced attorney in these matters. An attorney can listen to your concerns and then tell you what grounds you should bring a challenge upon and what evidence you’re going to need. Your attorney can also help you find evidence and will then put it together in a way that the court will find compelling to show why the terms of the trust should be contested.
Your attorney can also verify for you that you have standing, which means that you have a legal right to bring this case in California. To have standing, you must normally be: a beneficiary named in the trust; an heir who would normally have inherited if the trust did not exist; or have a financial interest in the assets of the trust.
Filing a Petition
Once you and your attorney have gone over everything, you will then need to file with the California probate court. Your filing is a legal document that explains what you’re claiming about the invalidity of the trust and what you are asking to happen, whether that’s for the trust to be entirely invalidated or for the terms to be changed in some way. You’ll state your grounds and include all supporting evidence you have. You file this petition in the same county as the trust is being administered (or where the grantor last lived).
Notifying Everyone
Once the petition has filed, everyone who has an interest in the trust has to be notified of the contest. This means any other beneficiaries, the grantor’s heirs, and the trustee, at the least. All of these parties have to have a chance to respond to your challenge. Once they’ve all had time to do that, the court will schedule a hearing to hear your petition. It is the duty of the trustee to defend the trust agreement. Even if they think that your position may be valid, their fiduciary duty requires them to put up a defense.
At any time during the process, the court may order a settlement conference or some kind of mediation so that there can be negotiation between all the parties involved. The goal is to come to a resolution that does not violate the terms of the trust but satisfies all parties, if that is possible. But if a settlement can’t be reached, then the case does go to trial and a judge will make the final determination about whether the trust is valid and the terms and provisions are enforceable.
If you have any concerns about Aatrust, contact us today at Frisella Neilson, APC in San Diego, CA to get help from experienced probate and trust attorneys.
