Taking Over a Trust File

A trust file lands on your desk. It holds a trust agreement, one or more amendments, a will and a memo from whoever worked on it before you. Before you can advise anyone, you need to know who is in charge, what each person receives and where the documents disagree.

This lesson teaches five prompts that do the first pass, each with one job, so you spend your time on judgment instead of hunting through documents.

Before you start

Selection controls the answer. The assistant reads only what you select.
Findings, not conclusions. You make the legal call.
Fill in the [brackets]. Replace each one with the specifics from your file before you run the prompt.

The five prompts

Summarize the [selected documents] for an attorney who is taking over this trust administration. For each document, give the date, the document type, and the three most important provisions. Cite the document and section for each point.

Who is authorized to act as successor trustee, and who is named as personal representative in the [Will]? If the documents name different people for these roles, explain which document controls each role. Cite the document and section for each answer.

Compare the [Trust Agreement], the [First Amendment], and the [Will]. List every inconsistency in names, dates, dollar amounts, section references, defined terms, and the people a gift applies to. Return a numbered list. For each item, give the location in each document and explain why it matters. Do not suggest fixes yet.

Trust but verify

Every answer has blue numbers at the end, those are the citations. Click those numbers to see an excerpt of the document your answer came from. If needed, click the excerpt to see the answer highlighted in your document. Open the cited section and confirm it in context before you rely on it.