My mother left me a trust, but I got into an argument with my aunt and she won’t sign the paperwork. Can I force her?

My mother passed away last October, leaving a trust with a large financial company that I have difficulty accessing.

The trustee is my aunt and we had a falling out a few years ago and she is now refusing to sign the necessary forms to release the money to me.

It’s been almost a year now and I’m getting more and more frustrated.

Is there anything I or the company involved can do to force her to sign the paperwork?

Tanya Jefferies from This is Money replies: Your frustration is understandable, especially at a time when you are grieving the loss of your mother.

If you meet the terms of the trust, there is no good reason for your aunt to use her position as trustee to withhold your money.

Any arguments between you should be irrelevant, because your mother presumably trusted her sister to follow her wishes and act in her daughter’s best interests, without reservations, such as that you remain on friendly terms.

Provided you are entitled to all assets in the trust, you can take steps to resolve this matter.

We asked a lawyer with experience in this area to explain what the duties of a curator are and what action you can take now.

It may well be that hiring a lawyer to send a single, strongly worded letter to your aunt will get her to relent.

Ben Wilson, partner in the moot wills, trusts and estates team at Weightmans, replies: For the purposes of this answer, I will assume that you are a beneficiary of the trust and that the trust requires your aunt to prepare the necessary paperwork to effect the transfer of funds to you.

There are different types of trust. Some trusts, known as “discretionary trusts,” give the trustee the freedom to determine whether, when, and how to make payments to beneficiaries.

Assuming you are now entitled to the money, your aunt may be breaching her duties as a trustee and breaching the trust.

In simple terms, trustees hold property for the benefit of others. This is an important task, as a trustee is entrusted with the property of one person, which he must manage for the benefit of another.

In this case, your mother has entrusted your aunt with the management of money in an account for the benefit of her daughter.

What are the duties of a trustee?

The law imposes several duties on a trustee to manage trust property (in this case, money in account) for the benefit of the beneficiary.

The trustee’s duties include the following.

Act with caution, skill, and care: By refusing to sign paperwork to complete the money transfer, your aunt may be violating this duty.

Avoid conflicts of interest: In this case, the trustee and the beneficiary had a falling out several years ago, and this may be the reason your aunt refuses to sign the forms to release the money. If this is the case, there is likely a conflict of interest.

Acting within the powers given in the trust deed and by law: How trustees deal with trust property, and what they do with it, is determined by the trust document (which may be a will, for example) and the law.

If they act outside these powers and duties, they are likely to breach trust.

In this case, it appears that by refusing to release the money, your aunt may be in breach of trust.

What action can you take now?

There are various legal options available to you. The usual course of action would be to apply to the court for an order compelling the aunt to properly administer the trust, or to apply for her removal and replacement as trustee.

Your aunt would likely be ordered to give a full account of her dealings with the trust, and be held personally liable for any losses suffered by the trust as a result of her failure to manage it properly.

There may be additional tax due if you hold the money longer than necessary, or there may be a loss in terms of potential investment returns.

If the claim in court were successful, it would be common for the court to appoint an independent professional liquidator.

This would incur additional costs as the professional trustee would charge fees for their work in administering the trust.

Can you avoid going to court?

I don’t know how much money is in the pot, and legal proceedings are often expensive and can take time.

There will be personal costs associated with the time and stress associated with dealing with legal proceedings, so any good lawyer will always do everything he can to deal with the case quickly and without the need for legal proceedings.

My advice to you would be to instruct lawyers quickly.

Assuming your aunt is obligated by the trust deed to allow the funds to be released, the first step will be to write to her, outlining her duties as trustee and demanding that she immediately authorize the release of the funds and provide full trust accounts.

The first letter should set out the consequences of failing to fulfill her duties, including legal proceedings against her.

In the event that your aunt does not successfully defend the claim at the final hearing, she also risks having to pay a large portion of your costs.

You would hope that your aunt would instruct lawyers who would advise her properly on her duties and advise her to release the money.

The situation you find yourself in is unfortunately not unusual and can often be the result of the appointment of family wills or trustees.

When drafting a will or setting up a trust, it is sometimes useful to appoint independent professionals to administer the estate or trust.

Although this comes at a cost, it can help prevent such a dispute between beneficiaries and executors.