The trust was funded June 29, 2011. Immediately the executor and trustee sent me a document to sign giving my permission for them, jointly or individually, to assume the trust’s assets and my future social security payments and reassign them. This would have taken me to zero money and zero cash flow. There was a line for my signature. I told them no and shredded the document.
The executor has behaved as if to construe the trust agreement document provides for reversion of the trustee role to her upon my death. In August, the executor and trustee got into an argument over issues undisclosed to me. The trustee immediately packed her furniture and moved away without telling me. In October, I was poisoned by the executor’s daughter and granddaughter. In November, the trustee sent a girl to my house ostensibly to help pack, a service I didn’t need. Instead of packing, she built a firebomb.
The firebomb consisted of a box with a couple rows of VHS tapes on bottom and the bottom half of a hurricane lamp laid on its side. Filled with oil, the lamp oil, number one diesel fuel, or kerosene, was dripping on the tapes and was absorbed by the box. The box was positioned under a bay window with a spaghetti sauce jar containing a couple inches of lamp oil sitting on the windowsill. The trustee insisted this was my fault, then insisted it was a dumb mistake, then insisted she wasn’t responsible for what other people did. I named the firebomb “fuel box.”
I survived these poorly conceived attempts to do…what? The DHS APS specialist advised me not to talk about it.
By mutual agreement, I replaced the trustee because she would not perform, and I felt she shouldn’t have played a role in an attempt to burn down my house, although she denies any knowledge of a scheme. As a practicing attorney, she would not want rumors of this mischief. I appreciate that she surrendered voluntarily; otherwise, I’d have had to take her to court, which would have been hard with no money.
I didn’t bother the police with this childishness. I was disappointed but unconcerned. The alternate trustee assumed duties December 2011. He is a CPA I met over 30 years ago in a corporate environment. I employed him to do my taxes after I left the corporation. He was careful, by the book, had jumped a thousand hurdles, and I trusted him.
The executor attended my first meeting with the trustee December 2011. She, the executor, and he, the trustee, emphasized the importance of investing the trust’s assets, $150,000.00. I told them it wasn’t that much money, and that I was more interested in moving than investing. The trust also receives a monthly oil lease royalty payment.
I live in a 14-foot by 52-foot mobile home that is old and falling apart. It’s about 650 square feet inside with no storage, so the floor is mostly taken up by things I can’t put away and haven’t discarded. I’ve lived here almost 10 years and am sick of it.
It is located in the Oak Ridge Mobile Home Community in Edmond, OK. The park was owned by Warren Buffett until 2009 when it was purchased by Yes! Communities of Denver, CO.
The house is owned by the trust.
The new owner’s management began telling the residents they wished they had nothing but Mexicans living here. It was strange and made people nervous. (This practice has ceased.) There were gunshots in the wee hours. The office began issuing fine notices for minor housekeeping issues in a growing list of eviction, or “lease termination” offenses. I had been threatened with expulsion for not removing the hitch from my house. The house next door has a hitch, but that neighbor was not threatened. A neighbor under pressure from the office hanged himself from a park tree on a fine summer morning.
The house was falling apart. The doors didn’t work, even after replacing the back door. Overgrown trees were beating holes in it. I cut and removed a couple dozen trees and replaced the roof on the house, requiring expensive contract services, in preparation for more repair. There was a limit to what I could afford. The house’s assessed value is only $3,100.00, so I wondered about spending anything. I wanted to move.
After January 2012, four skirting panels fell off because the wood bottom rail to which they were attached was rotten. I knew there was more rotten wood because parts had been coming unattached from the year I arrived. The manager told me I’d fix the skirting or the owner would “ask me to leave.” The trustee paid a visit to assess it and charged the trust $375.00 for his time and expert opinion. I didn’t want to fix it, considering it a waste of money. He insisted. I was friendly to the idea of moving the house, and if we did that it wouldn’t need new skirting. The trustee said he wouldn’t allow me to move the house. That seemed odd.
As this happened, the Social Security Administration requested a review of my eligibility. That meant spending a tidy sum for testing and evaluation by a clinic. The trust paid for it. The monthly payment was restored, fortunately, because I can’t use trust assets for living expense. It pays medical, housing and educational cost, with an invoice. All it directly contributes is the lot rental at Oak Ridge, little money but a big blessing.
The stage was set.
We removed the skirting, and replaced the substructure components and installed new skirting. That cost about $2,000.00. We removed some of the siding around the front door and found so much rotten wood, it was decided we’d pull off all the siding and inspect the whole exterior wall.
The exterior wall on the east and west was rotten, as was the framing around all the windows and doors. I hauled the stuff to the dump and purchased, loaded and delivered new materials. This job should have taken about three weeks with my very able workers, a couple who live down the street.
With the clandestine direction by the executor, my helpers stretched the repair out to three months. I knew that was happening because I heard her voice talking to them on the phone constantly, along with little verbal cues from all of them. The entire project cost nearly $6,000.00. Considering what we did, it was a very fair price.
It was now July 2012. The trustee issued his first report. It looked all right except for $20,025.00 in checks he wrote to himself at the beginning. He said this was an investment in an online company. The executor told me it looked odd and might present a conflict of interest. I told the trustee I didn’t like it and to restore the money.
His response came as he handed me the last construction reimbursement check. “You might want to keep whatever money you have,” he said, “because that’s the last of the trust’s money you’ll see ever.” I told him not to think, say or do that, because that was not what was supposed to happen. I told him he was supposed to let me spend the money.
Within a few days I found myself in a three-way phone conversation with the executor and trustee. “Take the money out,” the executor told us. “Take it all out,” she said. I told both of them, “no, don’t take the money out, don’t take any out.”
I reminded them I wanted to move, and they said I should look for a place. As months passed I questioned the trustee about what he was doing and how much money was in the accounts. He told me all was well, but he was too busy to show me bank statements or make a report. I was uneasy.
Between July 2012 and December 2013, the trustee wrote his personal and business accounts unscheduled, unauthorized checks totaling another $154,450.00 plus a cash withdrawal of $450.00. That’s a preliminary accounting. I have new figures. It looks like he’s been feeding at the trough since July 2013, when he finally made his report.
What he did was withdraw all the money and put it in his bank accounts. Then he waited another six months to show the statements. There should have been nearly $200,000.00 in the bank. Instead, there was less than $2,000.00, and his report said the trust had a worth of $216,000.00.
In the first 18 months, the trustee billed about $11,000.00 paid by 15 checks for this service. He wrote 92 other checks to himself totaling $174,450.00 (plus $450.00 cash).
It didn’t make much sense, I thought, as I reviewed it the first time. I felt dizzy. As I regained consciousness on the floor a couple days later (just kidding) I realized this was no investment. It was stealing, and nothing but stealing.
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