Attorney Thomas B. Burton answers a reader question about whether her sister can claim compensation for serving as Trustee of her mother's trust.
Transcript of Video: Can My Sister Claim Compensation for Acting as Trustee of Mother’s Trust?
Today's question has to do with trustee
compensation and the reader asks can my
sister claim compensation my sister was
trustee of my mother's estate and is now
wanting to claim compensation for taking
care of mother who lived in Wisconsin I
understand that Wisconsin law states if
a family member wants to take care of
another it is of their own free will the
trust does allow for compensation
however there was no care act put into
place
furthermore the sister is now in jail
for embezzlement on another matter
there's money missing from the trust
does she have a right to claim
compensation since she can't account for
the monies that are missing so in short
this is a complicated situation but the
language of the trust will likely govern
the situation many trust documents allow
for reasonable compensation or some
other compensation while the trustee is
acting while the grantor is still alive
most trusts pay the trustee to
administer the estate after the grantor
passes and again look at the language of
the trust document I can tell you that
in Wisconsin under a will a personal
representative is entitled to 2% of the
probate estate as their fee for
administering the estate so that's any
the asset that passes under the will so
use that sort of as your baseline where I
would think an amount above that often
would seem excessive unless it's written
right in there directly why the sister is
getting that amount now in terms of
caring for your mom while she's alive
that is best memorialized in the care
contract as you pointed out stating what
the sister will do for mom in exchange
for compensation and again that should
be reasonable now I recommend you take
a copy of this trust to a local
attorney and have them explain to what
it says about trustee compensation and
you may have other claims
there that involve the missing funds
so this is too complicated to answer in
a short video but that's the short
general response to what I would do in
this situation and again most trusts
will authorize some compensation for the
trustee but remember when you're acting
as trustee you have a duty of good care
and loyalty to the principal so you
should never be using the funds just to
enrich yourself great question and thank
you for asking!
© 2019 Law Office of Thomas B. Burton. All Rights Reserved.
Transcript and captions provided for ease of access for the hearing impaired.
For questions about this topic, or to suggest a topic for a future blog post, please contact my office.