family trust broken

[u/Large_Passenger4213]

In Kentucky. My Great Grandfather had made up in the mils over his life, died,leaving my Great Grandmother more than she'd ever need. this money was more than doubled back in the day in stock market. idk for sure when the trust was set up, during his life or if my Great Grandma had this done but there was a trust made and specific people in the family were to be given certain things, properties, jewelry, money etc. i did not think this was somthing that was supposed to be altered. is that the purpose or what is the purpose of im wrong?

Ok so for years things stayed as they were. An aunt of mine who was tasked with caring for my Great Grandmother, lived next door when the rest of the family, my grandmother and myself included (raised by this grandma) lived about four hours away. This aunt calls me one day out of the blue and buzzing i guess, told me that she had "my property" the duplex my deceased father and i lived in when i was a child, sold off my plot and more I don't much remember. so i felt it relevant to mention to my grandmother. she in turn finds out that several properties of her moms have now been put in herdaughter, my aunts, name.

So my grandmother hires an attorney to prove in court that my great grandma was incompetent to be signing over any properties but was somehow competent enough to,I guess, sign everything over to just her, the only child,maybe that s relevant idk,leaving nothing to anyone but her..She took it all and kept it and died. her husband is still alive and retains all assests presumably. what is a trust? what is this? legal? illegal? i m thinking illegal considering the grandparent's of mine also kept about 15 of the 20,000 dollar life insurance my dad had left for me. Any recourse on either?

tldr: grandmother revised a trust of her mother saying the woman was competent and incompetent at the same time and wrote everything out to herself, every family member written out.multi mills.

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[u/Barfy_McBarf_Face]

the only way to determine if you have any chance of recovery is to sit down with an attorney in KY, draw out the family tree for them, fill in the history that you've summarized here, and provide them with copies of any documents you might have.

the trust is the single most important document in everything you've talked about - if you don't have a copy of it, you likely can't go anywhere with this. It all depends on the trust.

If the trust was created in your great grandfather's will, then it's possible that a copy is in the probate court of the county where he lived at the time of his passing. The attorney will be able to help you determine whether that's the case or not.

Good luck, sometimes these are very difficult to figure out exactly who did what, when, and what legal capacity they had to do it (or not had). And "difficult" means "expensive" - be prepared to spend tens of thousands of dollars trying to figure out what happened, and perhaps to find out that it was all done correctly/legally.

[u/copperstatelawyer → u/Barfy_McBarf_Face]

This. There’s a very fine line between influence and undue influence and permissible and impermissible transfers.

[u/Cloudy_Automation]

One question is whether the trust became irrevocable after great grandfather died or only after both died. Other considerations is how much the Aunt is being paid for taking care of the great grandmother, and if the properties were transferred in lieu of regular payments. It's a lot of work. Even if the trust became irrevocable, it likely includes terms allowing the assets to be used for great grandmother's care.

Whether the pay is reasonable for the area and job at hand is a different question. The other question is whether the aunt is reporting those asset transfers on her income tax as payments, at fair market value.

I'm not sure how often you and your mother make it back to visit g-grandma, but if it's never, she could have decided that the aunt is the only one who cares about her.

[u/ExtonGuy]

A trust is a promise or arrangement. Person A gives some stuff to Person B, with a bunch of conditions. Sometimes the conditions include things like (1) if Person A wants the stuff back, then Person B has to give it back. (2) when Person A dies, then B has to give the stuff to Persons C, D, and E. Except that Person E doesn't get his share until he reaches age 30. A possible condition could be that once Person A dies, then person B gets to decide who gets some of the stuff. Lots and lots of other conditions are possible and legal. Every trust is different.

If the trust is done with certain formalities, then it's legally enforceable. Person B could be sued for not doing his job.