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Children who are named as a Trustee have a difficult task of distinguishing their familial responsibility with that of their fiduciary duty to the beneficiaries of the trust.   While you may be trying to keep peace in the family you are also being tested under the guidelines of the California Probate Code.  Every Trustee must produce an annual trust accounting upon demand by a beneficiary. There are formal and informal accountings that are acceptable under the probate code.  Although this beneficiary is your sister, she still has rights that the Court will recognize under the California Probate Code.  Your job is to distribute the assets of the Trust as quickly as possible to the beneficiaries.  This can be done in kind or in cash.  It is rare when all the beneficiaries are on the same page with how the assets should be handled, usually because each beneficiary has a different economic situation, needs, or personal goals.  One beneficiary may need the cash while another is willing to hold on to a property if there is a down turn in the market and maximize the value of the assets.   A trustee can authorize a buy-out of one beneficiary but that beneficiary must be offered a fair market value for his/her share.  In short, there are myriad issues that have to balanced with statutory duties, a daunting task for anyone.

One thing that is important in administering a trust is that the trustee promotes transparency.  Open up the books (which you should have been maintaining since day one), share the supporting documentation if necessary (e.g., bank statements, investment portfolio information dividend statements, etc…).  Verify that all income and principal are properly accounted for in accordance with general accounting practice guidelines. Beneficiaries get nervous when they feel that the trustee is hiding something.  You usually do not find this with a corporate trustee, but a family member who has been named trustee, especially another sibling, conjures up familial issues that have no relation to the trust administration. How many siblings have childhood grudges that couldn’t be forgiven or forgotten? We’ve heard quiet a few. In situations like this, the administration of the trust can quickly spiral out of control.

In representing a Trustee, an attorney’s focus is to guide the trustee in the administration of the trust.  The terms of the Trust set forth the guidelines for the distribution of the assets of the trust.  The laws as set forth under California Probate Code set the guidelines as to a Trustee’s fiduciary responsibility in investing, distributing and accounting for the trust assets.  A breach of a Trustee’s fiduciary responsibility in some cases can result in personal liability to the Trustee.  Lawsuits in trust administration are costly and devour time and energy.  They also reduce the size of the estate and the final distribution of the trust and serves to prolong the process and do further damage to the family integrity.

It’s our job to act regardless of the emotional involvement and simply do what is just and equitable.  We don’t mind being the proverbial fall guy.

Naming a beneficiary for anything is always difficult. When naming a beneficiary, or beneficiaries, on a retirement account it is important to properly name them to insure that assets, in this case your retirement account, passes to your beneficiaries without the need for probate (click HERE to the read an earlier post on why you want to avoid probate). You want your beneficiaries to have the opportunity to either “roll-over” your retirement account into a new retirement account or to stretch out the retirement account distributions over the life expectancy of the beneficiary. The “roll-over” option is mainly used if your beneficiary is a spouse and the stretch out option is mainly used if the beneficiary is a child (the use of “child” refers to ones adult child). In some cases the IRA owner may want to name a trust as a beneficiary in order to control the distribution of the retirement assets after his or her death.

Naming a trust as a beneficiary may present its own problems, such as exposing your retirement assets to immediate taxation upon your death and resulting in the loss of the “roll-over” and stretch out option.  If you want to name a trust as a beneficiary, help your beneficiaries avoid undo frustration and seek the advice of an estate planning attorney.

While speaking with my Mom from Florida last week, she conveyed to me, to our surprise, that she and an unknown cousin in Iowa, own 80 acres of land in Canada.  Apparently, my great grandfather came over many years ago from Switzerland and purchased 80 acres of farmland before he settled in Oklahoma.  My Mother never knew her grandfather, let alone, that he had land in Canada!

Most states, if not all, have an unclaimed property website that allows you to look up the unclaimed property associated with your name. If you are a California resident, check out the link below to see if you have unknown property laying around. You never know what you may find.

http://www.sco.ca.gov/upd.html

*cover song – a recording of a song that was first recorded or made popular by somebody else; “they made a cover of a Beatles’ song”.  Definition provided by: thefreedictionary.com

When uploading a video to YouTube, most people like adding music to go with their imagery. Well, unless you own the rights to the music, you need to get permission. I heard someone say, “No problem, I’ll just get my friends band to do a cover song”. Although, I do enjoy cover songs immensely, you still need permission from the original author to use it. Good ole copyright law getting in the way again. If you turn the tables and you are the artists, you’re pretty happy about that right now.

Doug Reside is the Digital Curator at the New York Public Library. Over the last ten years we have had the pleasure of working with Doug on many occasions. Doug recently wrote a blog post titled, “‘No Day But Today’: A look at Jonathan Larson’s Word Files”. His post illustrated some of the challenges that occurred while preserving Larson’s digital works. I found it interesting and wanted to share it with you. The following is an excerpt:

“The final draft of RENT on Larson’s disks was saved at 12:38 PM on Monday, January 15 using a copy of Microsoft Word 5.1 for the Macintosh.  Opening this file with a vintage copy of the software, it’s possible to see the file more or less as Larson saw it in 1996.

When I open the same file with a simple text editor like Text Wrangler, though, the text appears to be somewhat different… [Y]ou can see the line “Before the virus takes hold” appears as “Before you enter the light” looking at the same file!  What’s going on? ”

Click here to read the post in its entirety

Last year, the Los Angeles Lakers and Comerica Bank honored Denise Guzman with the Best of LA Women’s Business Award in the category of Woman of Entrepreneurship. She received her award center court at the STAPLES Center.

Photo: Denise pictured in 2010 with Melissa Pollard of Comerica Bank, Senior Vice President – Western Market

This year, the Los Angeles Lakers and Comerica Bank invited Denise back to the STAPLES Center to meet the 2011 award recipients. Denise attended Tuesday nights Laker game where the Lakers were victorious over the San Antonio Spurs 102 – 93. Denise is honored to be apart of this distinguished group of business women. Thank you to the Los Angeles Lakers and Comerica Bank for their ongoing support of women in business.

Photo: Denise pictured with 2011 award recipient Jill Albert in the Comerica suite

Photo: Denise pictured with Amy Sheals a representative of Comerica Bank

 

Click here to read Denise’s 2010 letter to the LA Lakers and Comerica Bank