Is the Trust Valid?
Losing a loved one can be an overwhelming experience. And it is natural for family members to experience a range of emotions at a time of loss. But sometimes these feelings lead to conflict, as the survivors may disagree on what their deceased relative or friend meant to provide for them upon his or her death.
Disputes may occur even where the decedent left behind an estate plan, such as a will or trust. When these conflicts arise, you need competent legal counsel. The experienced trust and estate litigators at Trust Law Partners are available to help our clients manage any legal disputes concerning the validity of a decedent’s will or trust.
As a surviving heir or beneficiary, you’ll want to be sure that your loved one’s actual last wishes are honored. In some cases, this may require a court’s involvement to ensure that a trust instrument is a valid document. In many other cases, this may mean proving that a trust instrument is not valid.
Are you concerned that a loved one’s trust may not reflect their final wishes? Or in the alternative, are others attacking a trust that you believe rightfully benefits you and your family? In either case, you need effective legal counsel to assist you in resolving the dispute.
If you are involved in a situation where the validity of a trust is in question, or if you think a dispute may arise soon, you need to act fast. Now is the time to contact the qualified and compassionate estate and trust litigation lawyers at Trust Law Partners.
Reasons a Trust Might Be Invalid
A trust may not be easy to contest after the death of the trustor – that is, the person who created the trust. Trusts are often designed to avoid court actions, and to protect and distribute the trust assets to the trustor’s intended beneficiaries.
Still, every day aggrieved beneficiaries or would-be beneficiaries file contests to challenge the validity of a decedent’s trust that they feel fails to sufficiently benefit them. Likely contestants include the following types of claimants:
- Beneficiaries
- Family members
- Creditors
- Other interested parties, such as a former spouse
There are several legal bases to pursue a trust contest or to contest an amendment to a trust. Several of those bases are set forth below.
Incapacity of the Trustor
For any legal document to be valid, the person creating it must be of sound mind, which means they must have the mental capacity to direct their affairs. Adults aged 18 and over are presumed to be of sound mind unless proven otherwise. Generally, testamentary capacity requires trustors to (1) know who their family members and loved ones are, (2) understand what property they own, and (3) understand the nature of the testamentary act (that is, they must understand that they are creating a trust or will).
But if a contestant can prove that the trustor lacked testamentary capacity at the time the trust or amendment was executed, then the court can find that the document is invalid. Factors that could lead to a finding of Incapacity include proof of mental illness, including delusions or hallucinations. Allegations of incapacity often involve degenerative diseases, such as dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, that are known to impair memory and cognitive ability.
Physical conditions, such as a traumatic brain injury, may also impact mental capacity, as could substance abuse issues. But a finding of temporary incapacity may not be enough. To successfully challenge the validity of a trust or an amendment, a contestant must prove that the trustor lacked mental incapacity at the time the document was created or signed.
Undue Influence
Most contests of a trust’s validity involve allegations of undue influence. Undue influence is generally defined as the application of excessive persuasion that causes another person to act in a certain way by overcoming that person’s free will, and that results in inequity or unfairness. A trust may be deemed invalid if the person signing was subject to undue influence at the time the trust or amendment was created and executed.
Excessive persuasion may take the form of duress or even affection. This could mean that someone, even a loved one, uses intimidation, authority, or affectionate behavior to cause another person to sign a trust or an amendment they would not have ordinarily signed, if not for the undue influence applied to them.
Many factors may cause a trustor, especially an elderly trustor, to be vulnerable to undue influence. These factors may include the influencer’s authority over the trustor, the influencer’s involvement in the creation of the trust or amendment, and the equity or fairness of the document’s provisions. All aspects of the trustor’s physical and mental condition may be considered by a court in determining if undue influence occurred.
Fraud
Undue influence often goes hand in hand with fraudulent conduct in causing a trustor to execute a trust or trust amendment. A trust can be invalidated due to fraud in several scenarios. For instance, a court will nearly always invalidate a trust instrument if the judge finds that the signatures on the document were forged. This would be a clear case of fraud, in most cases, because forgery occurs only when the trustor’s name is on the documents but he or she never authorized another person to sign them.
Fraud may also involve some kind of trickery or deception, such as when someone manipulates or misrepresents the contents of an instrument to persuade the person to sign it. If the trustor signed the document in reliance on the fraudulent statements, and the document harms the interest of the trustor or his preferred beneficiaries, then the court may set aside the document and find it invalid due to the fraud connected with the document’s creation and execution.
Fiduciary and Caregiver Misconduct
California law sets out a series of restrictions on trusts and other gifts benefiting certain kinds of beneficiaries.
These presumptively “disqualified beneficiaries,” which don’t include family members of the trustor, may include:
- The drafting attorneys of the trust or trust amendments;
- Fiduciaries – that is, persons in which the trustor places trust and who cause the instrument to be transcribed or reduced to writing;
- paid caregivers, defined under the law as “care custodians.”
Gifts to any of the classes of beneficiaries described above may be scrutinized by the court, and the court may require those persons to prove to the court that the trust or amendment is not the product of undue influence. In such cases, the court will very often invalidate the trust or amendment, because the disqualified beneficiary cannot provide sufficient evidence of what the deceased trustor intended.
You Need Experienced Counsel to Handle Your Trust Validity Litigation
Courts are often inclined to uphold a trust or trust amendment that is signed by a trustor, especially where an attorney was involved in drafting the instruments.
It can therefore be difficult to successfully challenge or contest the validity of a trust or trust amendment, even if you think you have supporting facts and the legal standing to bring those claims. And even if you know that the trust doesn’t reflect what your loved one wanted.
On the other hand, defending a trust or amendment against claims of invalidity can also be complicated. This is especially true when the contesting parties are other loved ones of the trustor, such as disinherited family members who claim to be the trustor’s natural favored beneficiaries.
In either case, you need an experienced attorney to represent your interests throughout the mediation or litigation process.
Trust Law Partners provides a fee consultation for any potential client to determine if a trust or amendment may be presumed to be invalid based on any of the laws described above, or if the circumstances that led to the trust’s creation are suspicious for other reasons such as incapacity, undue influence, or fraud.
If you are involved or think you may become involved in a trust validity dispute, you should turn to the qualified and capable trust litigation lawyers at Trust Law Partners. Contact us today to schedule a free case evaluation.
