Beneficiary Rights Attorney in Tarzana

Beneficiary Rights Attorney in Tarzana

Tarzana has a dense older population and a lot of trusts where somebody held a power of attorney over a parent’s accounts for years before death. When those files go wrong they do not usually go wrong at the trust level. The money moved while the parent was alive.

That matters because a beneficiary who frames it as a trust accounting problem is reaching for the weaker tool.

Elder financial abuse is a different claim with better remedies

Welfare and Institutions Code § 15610.30 defines financial abuse of an elder or dependent adult to include taking, secreting, appropriating, obtaining or retaining real or personal property for a wrongful use or with intent to defraud, or by undue influence. It reaches conduct during the parent’s lifetime, which an accounting of the trust after death often does not.

Probate Code § 859 is the part that changes the arithmetic. Where property has been taken in bad faith, or through undue influence as defined in the elder abuse statute, the court shall order the person to pay twice the value of the property recovered. Attorney fees and costs are available in the court’s discretion.

There is a live split worth naming rather than glossing. Whether the § 859 penalty subsumes the return of the property or sits on top of it has been decided both ways. I work from the rule in the cases holding the penalty is in addition to the return, and I tell clients that the point is contested rather than pretending it is settled.

None of this replaces the trust remedies. It sits alongside them, and it is usually the reason a Tarzana file is worth pursuing when the amount taken would not justify a fight on its own.

What the trustee still owes you

§ 16060 requires the trustee to keep beneficiaries reasonably informed of the trust and its administration, and § 16061 requires him to report information relevant to your interest on reasonable request. § 16063 sets out what an account must contain: receipts, disbursements, assets on hand and the trustee’s compensation.

Where the same person held the power of attorney before death and became trustee after it, there are two sets of records and only one of them is the trust’s. § 4541 lets a court compel an attorney-in-fact to submit accounts where he has failed to do so within 60 days after a written request from the person filing the petition, and that is the route to the lifetime transactions.

Ask for both. The trust accounting will not show what happened to the accounts in the two years before death, and that is usually the period that matters here.

What has to happen before a court will order an accounting

§ 17200(b)(7)(C) requires both that the trustee failed to submit a requested account within 60 days after your written request and that no account was made in the six months preceding it. § 17200(b)(7)(B) applies the same test to information.

Make the request in writing to the person in both capacities, as former attorney-in-fact and as trustee, and keep the date. The two clocks are different and you want both of them running.

Where a Tarzana trust petition is heard

Tarzana is in Los Angeles County, which centralises probate and trust matters at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, 111 N. Hill Street in downtown Los Angeles. There is no Valley probate court, so the Van Nuys courthouse is not where this goes.

An elder abuse claim is not necessarily filed in the same place or the same way as a trust petition, and the two can proceed on different tracks. Which court hears what is worth settling at the outset rather than discovering later.

Questions Tarzana beneficiaries ask

Money moved out of my mother’s accounts before she died. Can the trust accounting show me that? Usually not. A trust accounting covers the trust, and lifetime transfers out of a personal account often sit outside it. If the person held a power of attorney, § 4541 lets a court compel the attorney-in-fact to account where he has not done so within 60 days after a written request. That is the route to the lifetime period.

Is elder financial abuse really a separate claim? Yes. Welf. & Inst. Code § 15610.30 covers taking an elder’s property for a wrongful use or by undue influence, and it stands independently of any breach of trust. It also reaches conduct while your parent was alive, which is often exactly the period in dispute.

What makes it worth pursuing if the amount is not huge? § 859. Where property was taken in bad faith or through undue influence, the court shall order twice the value of the property recovered, and fees and costs are available in the court’s discretion. That changes the economics of a claim that would otherwise not be worth bringing.

Is the double damages rule settled? Not entirely. Whether the penalty subsumes the return of the property or is added to it has been decided both ways in the Court of Appeal. I work from the rule that it is in addition, and I would rather tell you the point is contested than let you plan around a number that might move.

Do I file in Van Nuys? No. Los Angeles County hears probate and trust matters downtown at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, 111 N. Hill Street. There is no Valley probate court.

Talk to Eric or call 805-244-5291. I serve Tarzana and all of Los Angeles County.

For the statewide rules, see beneficiary rights in a California trust. If money has already gone, see breach of fiduciary duty and how to remove a trustee.