Free Irrevocable Trust (Sasha McCandless Legal Thriller Book 6) by Melissa F. Miller Page A

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    Sasha left her stewing in her annoyance with Prescott & Talbott ’ s entitlement attitude.
     
     
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    Sasha added the Health Care Power of Attorney to the growing pile of documents to her left and stifled a yawn.
    She glanced at the dwindling pile to her right. All she had left was Allison ’ s Irrevocable Trust and the Appointment of Trustee and then she could claim her treat.
    Espresso . She could almost taste it.
    And not a quick run to Jake ’ s for his pitiful excuse for espresso. As her reward for numbing her eyeballs, not to mention her brain, with page after page of stilted, convoluted language that no lawyer had spoken since the eighteen hundreds, she ’ d earned the real deal.
    She was going to take a trip to the intimidating, fancy espresso bar downtown. She might even get one of their dense dark chocolate, caramel, and sea salt bars, known to the rest of the world by the less esoteric name of ‘ brownie. ’ She wasn ’ t a sweets lover, but she made an exception for those bars.
    The promise of the nirvana that awaited her propelled her forward. She plucked the trust document from the table and started reading. She made it almost all the way through the first sentence before she had her first question. The document was styled an “ irrevocable testamentary trust for the benefit of the minor children of Allison Bennett. ”
    She dialed Will ’ s extension.
    “ Yes? Is Naya rampaging? ”
    She chuckled. “ Not to my knowledge. Do you have a minute? ”
    “ Always. ”
    “ I ’ ll be right down. ”
    She ended the call and swept her documents into her arms. She trotted down the short hallway to Will ’ s office. His door was open, so she walked right in and plopped herself into his guest chair.
    “ Aren ’ t all testamentary trusts, by definition, irrevocable? ” she asked without preamble.
    Will made a contemplative noise. She recognized it as his professorial warm up.
    “ Well, with the caveat that this obviously is not my area of expertise, I ’ d say that ’ s correct. The difference between a revocable trust and an irrevocable trust is that the latter cannot be changed by the grantor once it takes effect. ”
    “ And a testamentary trust doesn ’ t take effect until the grantor dies, right? ”
    “ Correct. And, obviously, unless there ’ ve been some advances in science that I don ’ t know about, a dead grantor can ’ t make any changes. ”
    That all squared with what she thought.
    “ Then can you think of any reason why an attorney would draft a testamentary trust to specify that it ’ s irrevocable? ”
    He scratched his chin.
    “ Hmm. Possibly just out of an abundance of caution. Maybe the drafter is a belt and suspenders type. ”
    Of course.
    If there was one hallmark of Prescott & Talbott ’ s transactional attorneys, it was their insistence on building redundancies into their documents. It used to drive her nuts when she ’ d have to go to trial over a document that had been inelegantly drafted to provide the ultimate in butt-covering for the attorney, invariably at the expense of clarity and unambiguity. The trial lawyers all rolled their eyes at the belts-and-suspenders approach their colleagues favored when everyone knew that either/or would keep your pants up.
    “ Right. That makes sense. Hey, if you had a thorny estate issue, who would you refer it out to? ”
    “ Marsh Alverson, without a doubt. ” Will answered confidently and without hesitation.
    “ Great. Thanks. ”
    “ Wait. Are you doing a will? I don ’ t know if our malpractice carrier would approve. Not that you aren ’ t competent, of course. It ’ s just somewhat far afield of your expertise, don ’ t you think? ”
    Behind his glasses, his eyes flashed with concern.
    “ No, don ’ t worry. The estate I ’ m asking about has already been farmed out — to your pal at Prescott, as it happens. ”
    “ Oh? Is it in dispute now? ”
    She hesitated, chewing on her