What Happened
When a trust remains open for decades after a settlor’s death, even the most carefully written plan can become nearly impossible to carry out. In this case, a trust created in the 1990s by a woman devoted to both her extended family and her close friends had grown unmanageable. By the time she passed away in 2001, the trust named at least 15 trust beneficiaries — some relatives, others longtime friends — but provided little more than their names.
Two successive trustees attempted to carry out the settlor’s instructions, but over the next 20 years, many beneficiaries died, contact information was lost and questions mounted over who remained entitled to inherit. The single remaining asset of the trust — the settler’s home — was caught in limbo while disputes among certain heirs escalated into trust litigation.
That litigation was ultimately resolved through a settlement that appointed a new successor trustee, but the settlement left one crucial question unanswered: Who, after all these years, were the rightful beneficiaries?
With many of the named beneficiaries now deceased, limited identifying information available and some beneficiaries themselves being heirs of other deceased beneficiaries, the trust had become a complex genealogical puzzle. The new trustee, tasked with final trust administration, turned to Keystone’s skilled trust administration attorneys to bring order to an estate that had remained unresolved for more than two decades.
How Keystone Was Able to Help
Keystone immediately stabilized the administration and began reconstructing the trust’s history from decades of incomplete records. Our team reviewed prior court filings, settlement terms and accounting documents to establish a clear baseline.
Working closely with the trustee, Keystone conducted extensive due diligence to locate and verify over a dozen named beneficiaries. Public records searches, correspondence with prior counsel and outreach to family contacts revealed that, while several beneficiaries were still living and traceable, others had predeceased or post-deceased the settlor — some leaving no family members behind, and others leaving children or grandchildren who were next in line to inherit.
When all reasonable efforts were exhausted, Keystone prepared and filed a comprehensive petition for instructions and approval of the Second Account Current — a detailed financial report showing the trustee’s management of the estate since the first accounting. The petition requested that the court confirm the trustee’s appointment, approve his trust accounting, determine which beneficial interests had lapsed and authorize final distribution of proceeds from the recently sold property.
After full consideration, the court granted Keystone’s petition, confirming the trustee’s authority, settling the accounting and issuing an order identifying each rightful heir and their precise distribution percentages. The court also authorized the trustee to make final distributions and close the trust without further court order or personal liability.
Through patient investigation, clear legal strategy and meticulous presentation, Keystone transformed an “unsolvable” mix of family ties and forgotten friendships into a final, court-approved resolution. More than 20 years after the settlor’s passing, the trust was at last distributed according to her intent — bringing closure to a case that had once seemed impossible to complete.
