How can you compel the West Palm Beach trustee to distribute funds so you can go back to school or travel?

Are you a beneficiary of a West Palm Beach trust? Do you want to go back  to school or travel but the trustee will not let you get a distribution? If you are wondering whether or not you have a right to compel a distribution you are going to need to look at the language of the trust documents. Do you know under which circumstances the judge is going to side with you? 

Trust Language

• Experienced Palm Beach probate litigators know that the language of a trust is important.
• It is not as simple as figuring out what you think.
• Case law based on hundreds of trust cases throughout West Palm Beach help the judge make up his mind as to whether you are entitled to a distribution.
• Chances are the language your trust attorney used has been used in other trusts as well and there may be case law right on point.
• How can you find out?
• It helps to understand exactly what the judge is doing.
• The goal of the judge is to figure out the donor’s intent.
• In other words when your relatives or loved ones set up this trust what would they say to your request for a distribution?
• It helps to first figure out what kind of trust you have by looking at the language.

Discretionary Trusts

• What is a discretionary trust?
• These types of trusts leave distributions up to the trustee. 
• In other words they are made at his or her discretion. 
• You are going to be fighting an uphill battle if you are trying to get the West Palm Beach court to compel a distribution from a discretionary trust.
• Take a look at the language does it say the sole discretion of the trustee or merely at the trustee’s discretion?
• Slight changes in language could be crucial to your success in Court.

Maintenance Trusts

• A maintenance based trust is different than a discretionary trust because it may have factors for consideration by a Court.
• For example was the trust set up for your educational benefit?
• Is there language that points to you having some say in how the funds are used?
• You may have grounds for getting a judge to compel a distribution.
• That being said Courts were not born yesterday, they know that the trustee was given that trust for a reason.
• You still may be fighting an uphill battle here.

Want to learn more about compelling a trustee to give you a distribution?