Educational Trust; Inappropriate use by Trustee

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NumberSeven

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I am one of 17 beneficiaries of a Family trust to which there is one trustee who is a family member. The trust was established with many safe guards to protect the beneficiaries and the funds. At this time we (the beneficiaries) are attempting to demand that the Trustee resign based on the following reasons: 1. in the last 10 years there have been no statements or accountings provided (per trust there should be an accounting distributed annually); 2. Upon request by beneficiaries there has been no clear or adequate accountings in addition to copies of bank statements (which are not complete or intact beyond that they do not specifiy to whom or why the distributions were made) 3. the trustee has co-mingled trust funds and assets between there own personal accounts and business accounts compromising the protection of the trust funds; 4. The trustee has been paid excessive fees and costs for services not provided or accounted for. The trustee is now using trust funds to provide counsel on there own behalf, leaving the beneficiaries without any protection nor the funds to hire an attorney. We began a petition to which we have 12 out of 17 signatures demanding resignation for the above stated reasons, but what do we do with them? I don't know how to proceed, especially without the funds to provide an attorney for myself and the beneficiaries. How can we protect ourselves?
 
A trustee is often entitled to have legal counsel and to have the trust pay the costs of that counsel. There's nothing improper per se about that particular aspect. However, it does mean they are represented, while the beneficiaries are not. All the beneficiaries who are interested in having the trustee removed need to get a lawyer. That's the only way you're going to protect yourselves.
 
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