questions & answers

Question: I have a Living Trust that has my daughter as the executor. I want to change it to have my granddaughter as the executor however the company that wrote up the trust says my daughter has to be present in order to change the trust. Is there a law that says she must be present?

Answer: There is no law that says the "executor" (probably referred to as the Trustee in your Trust document) has to be present when the change is made. The Trust document itself dictates who can made amendments to the Trust Agreement. For example, the Trust Agreement might say that no Trustee can be removed without the approval of all of the beneficiaries or it might say that the Trustor (or Grantor or Trustmaker) has the absolute authority to amend the Trust, including removing and replacing Trustees. You may want to review the Trust Agreement and see what authority and restrictions it has. Typically, at a minimum, the current Trustee must be notified, in writing, of a change in Trustees.