Elderly relative maybe missusing a Trust

Palcouk

An elderly relative (85) who we thought new what she was doing in the last year had several faals and A&E addmissions. We then found paperwork 'stored' all over the large house, and letters from financial institutions that she had ignored. She had lost many £k's as a result. When she and husband sold their previous large property they set up 2x trusts with the single son and his daughter as the Benificiary (the son lives in Au) parents being the joint trustees's They are the type of Trust that are o/s the estate, so not part of any IHT calculation. The husband past away and the wife was the only trustee. I have subsequently found that she took £65k out of one of the trusts to give to another relative for a house purchase. This is I believe a breech of Fidicuary duty, and may be actionable. The relative now refuses to allow anyone who knows what they are doing too see her financials, and instead relies on peoples who wont question her. She is now accusing her son/me of taking some jewellery & clothes.

Apparently she views the Trusts as her own money to do with as she wishes. I have the Trust details. What to do?

Keep_pedalling

The beneficiaries need to take professional advice.

Albermarle

Normally these trusts need managing. For example a return to HMRC each year AFAIK anyway. Is there any paperwork along these lines, because that might be another issue?

poseidon1

OP, suggest you tread very carefully and not run up exorbitant legal fees on investigation and potential remedies, only to find the mother is perfectly entitled to treat the trust funds as her own.

Your 1st port of call is to consult a STEP qualified solicitor to review the copy trust document you have to make sure it is not a 'Settlor interested Trust' ( Google the term).

The language of trusts can be stated in quite esoteric terms such that ordinary lay people do not properly understand what they are seeing. Perfectly possible that the named son and daughter may only be default beneficiares on the eventual death of the husband and wife settlors, with the settlors free to access trust funds for their own benefit in the interim.

Consult a trust professional, get them to explain their understanding of the trust provisions, and then take it from there.

Palcouk

Problem being that the individual is refusing access to the docs, stating they are my private affairs. In the past she failed to respond to an FA that wrote advising her an investment of +£100k had reached the term maturity, and needing instructions. There was also a Spanish bank account (used to have a villa in Spain) that she resceived monthly statements detailing fees, there being no other transactions as she had not gone to Spain for +4years. When she was hospitalised I found out about this and had to instruct a Notary to produce the legal docs to courier to a Spansh Agent, for them to obtain POA to present to the bank and get the account closed and balance transfered to UK bank - all in all she lost £5k on this, Relative is now refusing me access to any docs.

All in all a mess

Palcouk

PS Some years ago she amended her will, but she failed to tell the solicitor all the details re benificieries and Estate value, with the result that there would have been a very large IHT fee. The solicitor has replied to me on this & other matters 'in broad terms',(Im both a relative & accountant) but when I asked whether the solicitor was prepared to act as Trustee, I received no response. I think her solicitor wants to avoid getting involved in a "mess" Two other solicitors I approached, declined.

poseidon1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82155293#Comment_82155293

So what you seem to be saying is having already approached three legal professionals, none have shown any appetite to get involved in this matter.

Seems to me short of having the mother declared incompetent to manage the trust and indeed her own affairs the family do not appear to have many options.

However since the process of having the mother declared unfit inevitably requires solicitor involvement to navigate the legal niceties, you are in a catch 22 situation.

I can see no immediate way ahead but perhaps others might.