Inheritance and trustee question

[sails]

One of my children's friends was left an apparently useful sum of money and this has supposedly been held in trust until the beneficiary turned 25.

That birthday has come and gone a few weeks ago. The trustee says the cheque is in the mail, but hasn't arrived...

I have no experience in these issues, so said I would put the question on here to see if anyone can help with any suggestions. Unfortunately the beneficiary is not very literate and so we now find out that he has not been receiving any statements and no-one in his family seems to have any idea how much should be there.

I understand he has been denied Centrelink payments on the rare occasions he has been out of work due to interest on this amount, so it must be showing up somewhere for Centrelink.

Does anyone know if he has the right to at least request a statement - or statements for the last eight years it has been in trust?

And does he have any recourse if the trustee has gambled the money away as worst case scenario?

Where would he go for help or to report a breach of trust? Any ideas on which government department might help?

Any suggestions would be much appreciated and won't be taken as advice...

 

[awg]

One of my children's friends was left an apparently useful sum of money and this has supposedly been held in trust until the beneficiary turned 25.

That birthday has come and gone a few weeks ago. The trustee says the cheque is in the mail, but hasn't arrived...

I have no experience in these issues, so said I would put the question on here to see if anyone can help with any suggestions. Unfortunately the beneficiary is not very literate and so we now find out that he has not been receiving any statements and no-one in his family seems to have any idea how much should be there.

I understand he has been denied Centrelink payments on the rare occasions he has been out of work due to interest on this amount, so it must be showing up somewhere for Centrelink.

Does anyone know if he has the right to at least request a statement - or statements for the last eight years it has been in trust?

And does he have any recourse if the trustee has gambled the money away as worst case scenario?

Where would he go for help or to report a breach of trust? Any ideas on which government department might help?

Any suggestions would be much appreciated and won't be taken as advice...

First, they need to find out who the trustee is, ie solicitor, public trustee or other

It sounds like a Testamentary Trust from a will, so the executor of the will should know something, Trust Deeds are definitely needed.

Re Centrelink, they will be able to provide details of what they hold against clients record, but my suspicion would be he has been denied payment on the grounds he has NOT provided full details of his Trust INCLUDING Trust Deeds.

If you get nowhere, you may wish to ring the Public Trustee an see if they can give you more specific advice ( locating will & docs), otherwise you may need to consult a Solicitor.

I have only very limited knowledge in this area, but have wondered about how these
" beyond the grave" provisions are managed, so let us know how u go

Hopefully the money is just waiting for them to sign off the paperwork

 

[prawn_86]

I have received 2 (relatively small) lots of inheritance. In both cases it was held in trust by the executor of the will until i reached a certain age.

As far as i understand it, if they have spent the money, the only recourse is to sue them via the legal system as i know in my case the funds did not need to be designated to a specific account and could just be held in the executors peronal account.

Im sure its a very messy, grey area and would be dependent on each will

 

[sails]

Thanks for the suggestions AWG and Prawn - will pass the info on...

You could be right AWG about Centrelink not having sufficient information. I feel sorry for him as, apart from his very elderly grandmother and her accountant, he seems to be alone in this issue.

Unfortunately, it seems there's been no paperwork at this stage. I don't think any bank statements have been seen except for once when there was a change of trustee. Obviously, it would have been better to have regular statements so that any breach of trust be nipped in the bud very quickly.

I would have thought there should have at least been letters by now advising him of due process. But all he's been told the cheque is coming.

Thanks for the idea to contact the Public Trustee. At least they might be able to advise where to go even if they don't handle breach of trust issues. Still, that's a bit premature as it may be all OK. I still wonder though - how do they know it is all there when no-one seems to have any idea how much was actually left in the first place and how much interest has compounded during the last few years.

Agree Prawn, it's a very grey area. This trustee should have had some tight reigns on him. If the money has gone, unfortunately he has no money to take it to court and probably earning too much to get legal aid.

I suspect it could take a while yet, but will post the events as they happen. It might help someone else too.

 

[sails]

A little more to update. Apparently the trust situation must have been lodged with the supreme court and now has been back there before releasing the funds. So it appears no deliberate improprietry with the funds.

However, in the last week, it has been revealed that the trust funds were invested and apparently suffered significant losses during the GFC. The family are stunned as they assumed (as I would have) that the funds would have been kept in high interest bearing bank accounts where the capital is protected and interest would have been compounding nicely. They realise now, in hindsight, that the beneficary should have been requesting information such as bank statements. Perhaps they could have insisted on a safer investment.

It seems rather strange for a trustee to invest Testamentary trust funds as opposed to placing it safely in a bank account. As there is an end date when these funds would be made available to the beneficiary, there would be no way of knowing if the market had turned down at that time. A bank account would have been the more prudent solution, imo.

Does anyone know if a trustee has the right to choose a risky investment rather than a bank account such as a term deposit?

 

[Glen48]

Smell as bad as QE I would be on the phone and asking a lot of questions and get the money under your control.

 

[sails]

Smell as bad as QE I would be on the phone and asking a lot of questions and get the money under your control.

Yes, Glen, that's clearly what should have been happening. But one beneficiary has now reached the age when he can access the funds - only to find that the GFC ate a big chunk.

 

[Glen48]

This is the trouble when every one has RIGHTS you are not allowed to interfere or give advice .
Guess do your best and have a clear mind and slep well.