California Trust Beneficiary Lessons | Unequal Distributions

Several years of legally representing abused estate heirs and trust beneficiaries in California’s Superior Court system, both civil and probate, provide lessons worth noting.
The first is that family dysfunction is not cured by the rigors of litigation. At best it is minimized and at worst exacerbated. The second lesson is that mediation, as process toward resolution, works. While mediation will not recast the dynamics deep in family history it will often provide an opportunity to equalize estate or trust distributions. It is not a perfect system.
Wills and trusts formed by undue influence and/or undermined by legal incompetency aren’t easily surrendered by those financially advantaged by their wrongdoing. Parties to a mediation should not expect an apology. Even less, a commitment to equality.
Intrafamily sentiments are not dissolved in a mediation process. Polarization usually continues. This is not the preference of the mediator or the parties’ attorneys. We know that we cannot cure what is often at the heart of family controversies...

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