[WSBAPT] Does a will trump a living trust?

[Jenna Brozik]

Hello listmates:

Here is the scenario:

My client comes in and has a living trust that her parents had drafted in
California. My client lives in Washington state.  The father was the last
to pass away and when this happened, his daughter, my client, became the
trustee of the living trust.  According to the living trust, the daughter
gets a property her parents own in Montana. My client doesn't know if there
was a will with the living trust and she does not know what attorney
drafted the living trust and there is no indication on the living trust who
drafted it.

After the living trust was drafted, my client's mother died and her father
remarried to a woman in Texas.  Her father drafted a new will before he
died which stated everything goes to his new wife, including all property.
Now the father's estate is going through probate in Texas.

The attorney in Texas doing the probate insists that since the Living Trust
owns the Montana property, then the probate in Texas does not control the
disposition of the property in Montana but the living trust does.

Please give me your take on this if anyone has time.

Thanks,


Jenna Brozik
Attorney at Law
Prinz & Brozik PLLC
445 S Grand Ave
Pullman, WA 99163
(509)338-0908 / (509) 338-3527 (fax)
jennaprinzlaw at gmail.com
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