I have been contacted by a person who is a Trustee and beneficiary of a living trust. The Settlor (who is also a trustee) has passed away and there are no Trust documents available.
The Will Writer who arranged the Trust has gone out of business and disappeared. She kept the original signed documents and didn’t provide copies to the settlor or beneficiary.
How can the surviving Trustee (and Beneficiary) gain control of or dissolve the Trust?
Neil Johnson
Will writers drawing up trusts that go bump in the night seems to be a continuing theme…
Is it worth trying to track them down using one of the tracing agents mentioned here:
Lost Beneficiaries - Trusts Discussion - The Trusts Discussion Forum
If you can find them and they’ve lost the original documents, they may wish to pay for the costs of resolving the situation.
Any chance a copy has been sent to HMRC when the trust was established or later (for IHT entry charge/IT/CGT)?
Failing that, if nobody has a clue what the terms were, you might just have to fudge a solution that passes title to the beneficiary - ideally with buy-in from any other potential beneficiaries/heirs.
I should think there will be a Court solution but it will not be cheap and presumably you will need some indication of the actual terms to obtain any order.
Andrew Goodman
Osborne Clarke LLP