legal requirements of trustees

Legacy_user

Please can someone confirm the what parents need to be provided with when their children as the named beneficiaries and the will creates a trust that will last for 15years until children reach the stated ages. The trust will have an income from property rental. The trustees are friends of the deceased and only have the names and a now old address for the children.

Many thanks

Dox

Current contact details - e-mail and mobile would be obvious starting points.

If the youngest child has come of age, Saunders and Vautier may apply (i.e. the 'children' can ask for immediate payment, depending on how the trust has been set up, even if the ages in the will are greater than their current ages). There is no onus on the trustees to offer early payment - the beneficiaries would need to apply to them.

System

The children are not of age and wont be for 15 years. The trust has been running 5 years and the trustees have sent nothing to me in this time. One trustee has moved with no onward address and the other ignores any letters.

System

I am not after obtaining any of the income. Just need to know what the trustees are supposed to provide us as the parents whilst the trust is running what with the children being minors.

Keep_pedalling

Fed_Up_2019 wrote: »

The children are not of age and wont be for 15 years. The trust has been running 5 years and the trustees have sent nothing to me in this time. One trustee has moved with no onward address and the other ignores any letters.

Do you mean they won’t be 18 for 15 years or that they won’t reach the age stated in the will for another 15 years?

If the latter then depending on the type of trust the will set up the children may be able to force the winding up of the trust to receive their inheritance once they are 18.

kangoora

The 15 year part is a red herring in the terms of this question I believe.

I think the OP is more concerned about the fact that a trust has been established which has supposedly been receiving rental income for the last 5 years. It appears there has been no communication from the trustees as to the state of trust finances to the parents of the children benefiting from the trust.

If you have no address for one trustee and the other is ignoring your attempts to contact them I would suggest you speak to a solicitor to discover a) your rights to any information on the trust as the parents of the minor b) what options are available to you following that discussion.

I would be concerned. You don't mention the age of the deceased but if the trustees were friends of the deceased and are elderly themselves then they could have died or got dementia after 5 years...........

GDB2222

Fed_Up_2019 wrote: »

I am not after obtaining any of the income. Just need to know what the trustees are supposed to provide us as the parents whilst the trust is running what with the children being minors.

The children are entitled to trust accounts. The trustees are entitled to pay an accountant out of trust funds to produce those. So, insisting on the children's rights could be expensive. Nevertheless, in light of what's happened, you should do that. You're probably going to have to apply to court for an order, so I suggest you hire a solicitor. It's possible that he can get some action without going to court.

I think that reasonable trustees should provide information to the guardian of young children without this palaver, so there may be some background stuff going on. A property should generate rent, so that there's a surplus each year being reinvested. You presumably need to know what is happening to that.

You asked a question on your other thread about the trustees bank account. It's a red herring, as the account should be just in their names. Curiously, it needs no specific designation, as long as the trustees can identify it as trust money.

SeniorSam

May I suggest that you write to the Trustees and inform them that as they have not supplied accounts as requested and are not replying to letters, you will apply to the Courts for the Trustees to be replaced. Also that such action and costs will be the responsibility of the Trustees as they are not complying with their duties. This may stir them into taking some action. If not, then get a solicitor make application to the Courts for new Trustees to be appointed, of so it yourselves.

Sea_Shell

I hope they turn out to be honest trustees, and that all the money is all still there. You should definitely pursue this.

GDB2222

Sea_Shell wrote: »

I hope they turn out to be honest trustees, and that all the money is all still there. You should definitely pursue this.

They were trusted friends of the testator. The chances are they've discovered there's a lot more to running a property trust than they realised when they agreed to take it on. That's not the same as being a thief.

Sea_Shell

How many times do we read of though where "trusted friends" have turned out to be anything but!!

£££'s a month in rental income hitting their bank account could prove too tempting!! It can happen.