May the settlor (stepmother) of a revocable trust, revoke her trust
after one of the beneficiaries of the predecease her?  The terms of
the original trust provided that upon the death of either beneficiary
100% of the net income was to be paid to the surviving beneficiary
until his/her death.  After both income beneficiaries had died, the
entire corpus was to be paid to my daughter, (settlor’s
granddaughter).

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Request for Question Clarification by aceresearcher-ga on 23 Dec 2002 07:22 PST

triplenickel,

To provide you with an accurate Answer, it would help Researchers to
know in what country/state you are located.

Regards,

aceresearchers

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Clarification of Question by triplenickel-ga on 23 Dec 2002 21:53 PST

My daughter and I are natives of the State of Delaware.<p>One other
thing - Even though the trust is headed "Revocable" nowhere in the
terms therein is it expressed that settlor (or anyone else) has
reserved the power to revoke or amend the trust.  My sister and I were
the only two income beneficiaries.  Upon the death of either of us the
survivor was to receive 100% of the net income.  She wanted to make
certain that the assets did not leave the family and end up in one of
our estates.<p> Basically my stepmother and her ‘new’ lawyer attempted
to amend an irrevocable trust with a fraudulent document.  My sister
(other beneficiary) died in 1993 and my stepmother died this past
April.  It appears that a 1998 so-called "Revision in Full" of this
trust is nothing more than a sham.  But since none of the parties seem
to be able to provide a copy of the original 1985 instrument, I have
filed a petition in Chancery.  However, until there is hearing, an
attorney that just was recently reinstated from a 1 year suspension
for falsely naming himself as nephew in a client’s will that he was
scrivener, that benefited him with 10% of that estate, now has my
money ($2.8M) inasmuch as he is named successor cotrustee in an
extrinsic document he penned for my stepmother.

Hi, triplenickel-ga:

You need to meet with a lawyer to assess the facts and recommend a
course of action on this.  Contact the Bar Association in Delaware,
and request assistance in filing a complaint against this interloping
lawyer.  With his previous bad acts on record, you should find a
sympathetic ear among his peers.

best wishes, mathtalk-ga

All (& more) of what you suggest has been done and suit was filed in
Chancery 6 weeks ago.  The question I posted is to learn if anyone has
ever heard of a case similar to this, i.e.; where a settlor creates a
trust that later became irrevocable due to the death of one of its two
beneficiaries (my sister & I) and the settlor changes her mind and now
wants to amend their trust to give the deceased beneficiary’s 50%
share to someone other than the surviving beneficiary as was pursuant
to the terms of the original trust.  The settlor was aware that I had
lost my copy of the original trust. All she would then have to do is:
1.)  Make certain that any and all copies of the original trust
instrument was destroyed.  2.) Find an unethical attorney [See: NOBC
cd13au96 Matter of McCann
http://www.nobc.org/Orlando_Aug__96/cd13au96/cd13au96.html]
willing to draft an amendment to the original trust, notwithstanding
the trust was irrevocable. 3.) Not tell anyone about the so-called
amendment.  She knew that I would not learn of the purported amendment
until after she had died and that I would have an uphill battle since
I did not have any documents.  In the meantime the great-grandniece
has the bank statements and documents necessary to gain access to the
accounts.  Has anyone ever heard of a similar case and does anyone
have any suggestions?  Thank you & Happy Holidays!  Peace on Earth!
Bob in Delaware