There are many ways of distributing your money to family members and others that you care about. Establishing a trust is one of the most effective and efficient ways of doing this. As the trustor, you provide the funds. You must also name a trustee who will be responsible for the management and distribution of the trust. The beneficiary is the person who receives the money.
This legal arrangement appears straightforward. However, it can be complicated by legal claims made by beneficiaries or potential beneficiaries or by the administration of your trust. If you are the subject of trust litigation, then you should hire a Las Vegas trusts attorney. A Las Vegas trust litigation attorney is the only one who can help you resolve such a dispute.
The Nature of Trust Litigation
Trust litigation occurs when a person or an organization challenges the validity of your trust. This can happen as a result of poorly executed documents, breaches of fiduciary duties, incorrect distribution of assets, questions over undue influence, questions about your competency, or family members who are upset that they were not named as beneficiaries in your trust.
You should not dismiss any claims made against you as frivolous or unserious. The people who sue you may have a strong case if you used a do-it-yourself trust document, for example. Each state has specific laws and regulations on how a trust must be formed, and many of the downloads found on the Internet do not adhere to those rules.
You should also routinely review your documents to ensure they are up to date. You can be vulnerable in a lawsuit if the trustees you originally appointed are deceased and you have not appointed alternates.
The Most Commonly Litigated Trust Issues
The minor administrative errors above can be bases for trust litigation. The following, however, are the most commonly litigated trust cases:
1. Disinheriting children
If you have decided to disinherit one or more of your children, you will have good reasons for doing so. However, they may not see it that way and may decide to sue for a rightful share of the inheritance. If you omit one of your children, it can create confusion, and the person left out may have grounds to challenge the trust.
2. Unsound mind
You must be fully clear and competent mentally when you establish your trust. Otherwise, it will be vulnerable to invalidation. If you were ill around the time you created the trust, anyone who was left out of it may decide to challenge the trust on the grounds of mental incapacity. Las Vegas estate planning attorneys deal with these situations all the time, and they will know how to verify that you were perfectly sound in mind when you established the trust.
3. Poor execution
Your trust must be written, signed, notarized, and witnessed. This is the law in the state of Nevada. If you missed even a single step, your trust document can be challenged and deemed invalid. Indeed, this is one of the biggest drawbacks of do-it-yourself trusts. They are often not set up to incorporate all of the above factors.
4. Breach of fiduciary duty
Being a trustee is an important job. They must administer the trust in accordance with your wishes. If they do not, then the beneficiaries can pursue trust litigation
5. Undue influence
If your beneficiaries believe that you made changes to your trust under pressure from a family member or friend, they will have grounds for a lawsuit and may win.
When to Bring in an Attorney
The very moment you receive notification that you are being sued over a trust, you should engage the services of trust attorneys in Las Vegas NV. It is best to leave all communication and negotiation with the people who have sued you to the living trust attorneys in Las Vegas you hired.
If you need more information on how to deal with trust litigation, you should speak to LV estate planning lawyers at Albright Stoddard Warnick & Albright.