In the Matter of Trust #T-1 of Mary Faye Trimble, 86 N.W. 2d 474 (Iowa, 2013)
Jan 25, 2013OUTCOME: Successful Defense of a Trustee
Mary Faye Trimble created a revocable trust in 1999 naming herself as Trustee and sole beneficiary during her life. Mary Faye did not have any children. In the last year of her life, she asked a niec ... e to be substituted as the Trustee. The niece served as Trustee for the last eight months of Mary Faye’s life and was named under the instrument to continue as Trustee after Mary Faye’s death. At Mary Faye’s death there were eighteen remainder beneficiaries named under the trust. One of the eighteen remainder beneficiaries requested an accounting from the Trustee from the trust’s inception in 1999 to the present, and then the remainder beneficiary reduced her request to an accounting for the last eight months of the settlor’s life. The request was denied by the Trustee under 633A.3103 because the Trustee had no duty to account to the remainder beneficiary for any months during the settlor’s life. The remainder beneficiary went to court to compel the accounting both for the one remainder beneficiary and also for a temporary administrator who had been appointed solely to review the last eight months of Mary Faye’s life. The District Court ordered the accounting to be provided and the accounting showed no wrongdoing and no impropriety from the Trustee whatsoever. Nevertheless, the Judge assessed all the attorneys’ fees and costs to the Trustee personally for having resisted the remainder beneficiary’s request for an accounting during the last eight months of the settlor’s life. The Supreme Court reversed the District Court’s judgment by finding that the Trustee had taken the correct position regarding the remainder beneficiary’s lack of standing to compel an accounting from the settlor’s life for the remainder beneficiary. The proper party to request an accounting from life is the personal representative of the settlor’s estate. All parties were ordered to pay their own attorney fees.