- Jurisdiction
- North Carolina
My sister-in-law passed away 11/9/18 leaving my mother-in-law $ in a trust to provide ongoing financial support and to pay off her house.
My sister-in-law and my husband, her brother, were providing monthly financial support to my mother-in-law right up until her daughter passed away. My sister-in-law also purchased the home my mother-in-law lives in, for which my husband gifted $ for the down payment and he was also paying for half the mortgage (we have bank statements that they both were contributing to my mother-in-law's financial support before the purchase of the home and after).
My mother-in-law is the only one named on the deed due to the rules of the senior community she lives in. She is the only one that can be on the deed and the mortgage. The mortgage holder has my mother-in-law's daughter as the "co-signer" because of the senior community rules, that state, that the person living there must be >65 years old and on a limited income (even-though it was my sister-in-laws financial status that got her approved)
The problem we are having now is that the money in her trust is being used to pay off her monthly mortgage when it is supposed to be used to give her a monthly living expense allowance. The house was supposed to be treated as one of my sister-in-laws debts and should be paid off. Instead, they are using my mother-in-laws trust $ to make payments on the house.
Does the trustee have the responsibility to make sure they disburse the funds according to what is in the best interest for my mother-in-law? As it stands now, there will not be enough money by the end of the 30-year mortgage to pay off the loan and she is not getting enough $ to live off of. (My mother-in-law lives in Northern California). She gets $500/month, pays $400 a month in HOA fees, leaving her with $100 for the entire month.
We have been in communication with the trustee and we said that was not the grantor's intentions. My sister-in-law told both my husband and I, 2 weeks before she died that she was leaving her mother enough money to pay the house off and money in a trust to support her cost of living "more money that she won't know what to do with". Well that is not the case now.
The other issue is that my sister-in-law left her 3 son's money in the trust, that is shared with my mother-in-law, as well and it is causing family strife. They do not want to use their mother's estate to pay off the house and are saying that her trust money was meant to pay off the house.
The trustee never sent my mother-in-law any accounting or summary of what they are doing with the trust. They never contacted her to investigate her current financial status or anything. How is it possible they are making these decisions for her without keeping her in the decision making?
If in fact my mother-in-law will only get the money that is in the trust, how can we change the trustee's decision to pay off her house and anything that is left over, which is not much, she can use towards her living expenses.
This is not what my sister-in-law intended. As I said before, we have bank statements proving that she was helping to support my mother-in-law, long before she passed away, as was my husband.
Would it help or can we change trustee's?
My sister-in-law and my husband, her brother, were providing monthly financial support to my mother-in-law right up until her daughter passed away. My sister-in-law also purchased the home my mother-in-law lives in, for which my husband gifted $ for the down payment and he was also paying for half the mortgage (we have bank statements that they both were contributing to my mother-in-law's financial support before the purchase of the home and after).
My mother-in-law is the only one named on the deed due to the rules of the senior community she lives in. She is the only one that can be on the deed and the mortgage. The mortgage holder has my mother-in-law's daughter as the "co-signer" because of the senior community rules, that state, that the person living there must be >65 years old and on a limited income (even-though it was my sister-in-laws financial status that got her approved)
The problem we are having now is that the money in her trust is being used to pay off her monthly mortgage when it is supposed to be used to give her a monthly living expense allowance. The house was supposed to be treated as one of my sister-in-laws debts and should be paid off. Instead, they are using my mother-in-laws trust $ to make payments on the house.
Does the trustee have the responsibility to make sure they disburse the funds according to what is in the best interest for my mother-in-law? As it stands now, there will not be enough money by the end of the 30-year mortgage to pay off the loan and she is not getting enough $ to live off of. (My mother-in-law lives in Northern California). She gets $500/month, pays $400 a month in HOA fees, leaving her with $100 for the entire month.
We have been in communication with the trustee and we said that was not the grantor's intentions. My sister-in-law told both my husband and I, 2 weeks before she died that she was leaving her mother enough money to pay the house off and money in a trust to support her cost of living "more money that she won't know what to do with". Well that is not the case now.
The other issue is that my sister-in-law left her 3 son's money in the trust, that is shared with my mother-in-law, as well and it is causing family strife. They do not want to use their mother's estate to pay off the house and are saying that her trust money was meant to pay off the house.
The trustee never sent my mother-in-law any accounting or summary of what they are doing with the trust. They never contacted her to investigate her current financial status or anything. How is it possible they are making these decisions for her without keeping her in the decision making?
If in fact my mother-in-law will only get the money that is in the trust, how can we change the trustee's decision to pay off her house and anything that is left over, which is not much, she can use towards her living expenses.
This is not what my sister-in-law intended. As I said before, we have bank statements proving that she was helping to support my mother-in-law, long before she passed away, as was my husband.
Would it help or can we change trustee's?
