What actions can be taken when a trustee who officially resigned over 20 years ago, by sending a resignation letter to a beneficiary, continues to administer an irrevocable trust and make decisions concerning the trust?
Without facts, this is a pointless question.
Let's start with the following:
1. What is/was the relationship between the trustor/grantor, the trustee who resigned, and the beneficiaries?
2. Was the trustee who resigned the original trustee?
3. To whom did the resigned trustee send the resignation letter?
4. What does the trust say happens upon the resignation of a trustee?
5. What did the recipient(s) of the resignation letter do upon receiving the letter?
6. Following resignation, did the resigned trustee turn over control of all trust assets to the successor trustee (or someone else)?
7. If the answer to question #6 is no, did the successor trustee take action against the resigned trustee for failing to turn over the assets?
8. In what ways has the resigned trustee "continue[d] to administer the trust," and what decisions has he/she made concerning the trust?
9. Has this continued administration occurred regularly over the entire 20-year period since resignation or is it something that he/she has only started doing recently? If the former, what action, if any, has the successor trustee taken to address this action?
10. What is your connection to the trust and the persons involved with the trust?
There have been no actions taken by beneficiaries regarding the trustee's continued administration
Why have they failed to take any action?
legal documents exist that define the trustee's powers after resignation.
Obviously, the trust instrument should address this. Any other documents? Most importantly, why would a trustee who has resigned have any continuing powers after resignation? I review multiple trust instruments every week and have never seen one in which a resigned trustee retains any authority (other than in connection with turning over assets to the successor trustee).
