Your Trust Is Set. Is Your Successor Trustee Ready? – Thompson VonTungeln

You have a living trust — that puts you ahead of most people. But here is the part many homeowners overlook: a trust is only as strong as the person responsible for carrying it out. Your Successor Trustee — often a son, daughter, or close relative — will one day be required to manage and distribute everything you have built, usually during the most difficult time of their life. The question worth asking now is whether they are truly prepared to do it.
2026 brings significant changes to federal and California law that directly affect living trusts and the families who depend on them. Updated estate tax thresholds, new Proposition 19 property tax rules, and revised trustee disclosure requirements mean that even a well-drafted trust from a few years ago may no longer be doing its job. An unprepared Successor Trustee can turn a smooth transition into a costly, drawn-out ordeal.
What is at stake:
What your Successor Trustee doesn’t know could cost your family hundreds of thousands of dollars and years of delay.
Mistakes in trust administration can lead to probate, personal liability, and serious family conflict.
Under Prop 19, your children could face a dramatically higher property tax bill on your family home unless your trust addresses it correctly.
Thompson VonTungeln — the Santa Clarita Valley’s largest estate planning firm, led by State Bar of California Certified Specialists in Estate Planning, Trust and Probate Law — invites you to our 2026 Successor Trustee Seminar at the Hyatt Regency Valencia on Saturday, April 25, 2026, 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM. Complimentary to attend ($500 value), but seating is very limited. Bring your Successor Trustee.
Call (661) 945-5868 or visit www.TrustTVT.com to reserve your seat.