Trustees ignoring beneficiary - what can be done?

[MalinandGo]

A young adult family member has a trust, with two trustees. One a distant family member he doesn’t really know and one a solicitor who is paid for the role.

The trust has been paying him a living allowance during university. His living costs went up a year ago and he has been asking for an uplift as a result but has had no response. He’s now starting a PhD and would like to buy a flat with his trust money; he has emailed them to ask about budget etc and got no response. This is all getting quite urgent as he is moving in the autumn and is in debt from making up the shortfall over the last year.

They will only deal with him, not any other relatives, as he is over 18. He is autistic and finds phone calls very difficult, and was upset recently when he called and thought the receptionist was laughing at him, so now won’t even try.

We’d like to give him the wording for a stiff email referring to their duties to him but aren’t sure where to start. Any advice on what we need to put in?

Yes, I was a guardian, and yes, the family member has been very clear about his reasons for behaving the way he did. Years ago we had legal mediation - we had a family law solicitor representing him for several years - and our lawyer was horrified at his attitude. That was when we sought advice about changing trustees. I won’t go into details but at that time things were even worse in their behaviour and various professionals involved were infuriated. We did succeed to an extent in (a) accessing the trust for him and (b) making the situation enough of a pain that the original other trustee passed the role on to the solicitor, who did at least introduce an element of professionalism.

He needs trust money to afford a solo rental, even if they won’t give him money to buy. So they need to engage at some level.

Sick of this slavish love of AI. It’s not the place for legal matters.

@MalinandGo - would this young man trust you to have Power of Attorney of his financial affairs?

He would. But I think that would just deepen the resistance on the part of the trustee.

Given the history, I think the young man needs legal representation. You mention the family member has been clear about his reasons for his behaviour, but don’t say what they were. Presumably his reasons will be inform the best approach.

they have behaved like this (actually at the time it was even worse as they were refusing any funding at all) and apparently unless they are being actively corrupt removing them is very difficult and could be stressful and expensive.

If that is the case, he definitely needs to get a second opinion. Yes, it is easier to remove trustees who are acting corruptly. Yes, it could be stressful and there will clearly be costs involved, although it should be possible to reclaim most of the costs from the trustees if they are removed. But, based on the information you've posted, unless your family member takes action he will never see any of the money in the trust. You may find this useful - Removing A Trustee From a Trust

This is the only correct reply.
posters suggesting AI should be ashamed!

Very sensible reply!

What are the terms of the Trust? He needs to quote them assertively. I suggest he writes a letter rather than an email, it might be harder to ignore. Phoning a solicitor's office is pointless unless you can speak to the actual solicitor, in my experience. The reception staff typically know nothing and are often poor at passing messages on accurately or at all (my recent experience with 3 different firms of solicitors).
(As an aside this is another very good reason not to put money in a trust but instead leave it or gift it to the person concerned.)

Can your family member (or you) make an appointment with the solicitor and you go with him?

I have found when I’ve needed things for the children or indeed sometimes myself, WHO says it, as well as what is said, can get hugely different results.

Sounds to me like you have got what needs to be said right but you haven’t got the right who.

In your situation;

• it’s too hard for him to ask;
• it’s too easy to dismiss you as having your own agenda;
• you need another solicitor to take this on.

One example:
I’ve been asking for years for one of my kids to be assessed for extra time in his exams. He has private assessment in primary school that showed he had processing issues which would apply. Contacted SENCO at secondary school first term of secondary - who said need to do own assessment to have it in secondary school. Private assessments won’t count even if I get an update one. Lovely, please will you do that then. Teachers need to request it - None of his teachers have concerns. He’s doing really well. Top set for everything. I say, Still think he might struggle to meet his potential and he needs the assessment. Definitely viewed as an over attentive parent et etc. So I raised with teachers at parents evening every year. Got nowhere because his on target to get 7-9 grades at GCSE. Then, had a phone call from his biology teacher who said he liked to call up and let parents know if he has a student whose attitude stands out as outstanding. This was after GCSE mocks but I thought I’d mention it one more time. My concern that even though he’s doing well academically, I think he does have this struggle and it may come out in exams or in the future as studies get harder. This teacher totally heard me and said yes we must get that checked. Had call back from SENCO 5 mins later. Tested next day. Eligible for extra time. They got the application for extra time for GCSEs during the last possible week.
I knew what needed to happen for years but couldn’t get it to happen - I really tried. Finally got someone who could make it happen to listen to me and it happened.

You need a solicitor. Not because you don’t know what needs to be done but because they have the skills and the power to make what you want to happen happen. It does cost money but this situation is going to cost money at some point anyway.

@Redburnett Sometimes trusts will be necessary. When this trust was established the young man was a child. Also, if all the money was transferred to people it may exclude them from support or benefits they could otherwise claim, which may be a major consideration for disabled people.

I haven’t said what they are on here but we know exactly what they are. They actually make increasingly less sense as time passes (not that they were ever ‘sensible’) but it means the less involvement the wider family is seen to have the better.

I think quoting the terms of the trust is a great idea, as well as requesting the firm’s complaint policy.

He is seeing money from the trust and has done for several years now. When they finally engage they give him appropriate financial support (mediation got things moving over ten years ago). They just make it very hard to work with them owing to their failure to respond and now we can’t do that for him we have the problem that he finds it hard to advocate for himself and get them to respond in a timely way.

If a firmer form of contact doesn’t work we can consider legal representation. We’re just very short of money at the moment and we know to our, literal, cost how much lawyers start to cost so we’d prefer to avoid it if we can just get them to act.

I think the time to bring lawyers back in might be if there is an issue around the ending of the trust. We’d definitely go down that road if we get nowhere with emails/letters now though.

@BerkshireRaces I do understand your point (believe me I do, both in this situation in the past and in comparable experiences of my own) but we haven’t actually tried to do this with force yet. As I said, experience in the past is that they DO cooperate but not without pushing, and now we have to support him in the pushing with the right levers to get them to prioritise him rather than just ignore him until he goes away.

Not a legal eagle, but Im thinking a hand written letter posted recorded delivery and signed by him would be good. Keep proof of postage. Photocopy letter.

Letter should reference previous requests/contact, the details of the request, and say he is requesting an in person meeting if the request is refused in order to discuss it and state he will be bringing a representative (if that’s the best choice of word?) to said meeting as is his right under disability law. And also say: If a reply us not received within 30 days i will instruct a solicitor to act on my behalf in this matter.

It could be that if he gets a lump sum to buy a house it will invalidate some benefits that are means tested until he pays for the house so maybe that’s the issue, the trustees want to keep getting free government money as long as possible. I don’t know which benefits are means tested though.

You don’t know how much is in the trust. I wonder if it’s enough for his whole life as he may not be able to get a job ever and will need money as benefits aren’t much amd Perhaps the lawyer doesnt want to put that in writing and thinks ignoring the request is easier…

It should not be handwritten and it needs not to be written by the young person as his hyperlexia os going to make it sound “silly.”

No one can forbid the young man from selecting a representative or secretary to write to the solicitor for him. That is nonsense. Have him assign you POA and write a stern letter to the solicitor directly telling them they are in breach of their clear duty under the trust to meet with the young man once a year and to respond to his requests in a timely manner.

I neglected to say the letter should be undertaken with help but perhaps thats not possible.

Totally agree. Your reply to my post makes total sense and I think this is your next step. You had guardianship and that worked. Now he’s an adult, you need power of attorney. Good luck with it all.

No one can stop him getting someone else to write but it would be counterproductive in this case and no reason for him not to send the letter on his own behalf. The less anyone else is seen to be involved, the less trouble will be caused. I wish this wasn’t the case, and we could all just be decent about this but we’re 15 years down the line and just trying to work with what we have.

Seeking advice from another solicitor could be solely on the basis that you want advice about writing to the trustees and what can be said appropriately that might ginger them into action. It does not need to be advice about removing the trustees or anything drastic - it could simply be about how to word a message from you. Better to get it right.

He knows broadly how much is in the trust. He’s seen the accounts but not for a couple of years.

He’s about to start a commercially funded PhD in a subject that will take him into what I suspect will be an extremely well paid career. His inability to work in WHSmiths will luckily not be an issue longer term - he’s got on to a highly competitive course via interviews. So he won’t need the trust for his whole life (and no, it’s nowhere near enough to live on in perpetuity so that wouldn’t fly anyway).

I did have a lightbulb moment in the supermarket this morning when thinking about this thread that his godfather is a lawyer (not in family/trust law but perfectly able to do a bit of research in it and has done before). In the cold light of day it is would have made a lot more sense to go to him than start this thread! But I’ll email him today and get his take for the legal input.

(He was one of the suggested replacement trustees that was refused.)

Excellent! Again: if there are specific things the trustee and solicitor must do but don’t (such as account for the money ir hold a meeting) these are important wedge issues.

Yes. We were fully prepared to bring in a lawyer v quickly if they’d not shared the accounts when asked but they did that relatively quickly. The meeting I’m only holding back on partly because he’d loathe the idea of it himself and partly because the family member lives nowhere near the solicitor and I suspect would make a massive deal about finding time to attend but also insist he was there, so the whole event could become a big red herring and delay progress.