Beware of Trust Mills
WARNING: Beware of trust mills, or people who are not attorneys and are giving trust seminars and legal advice. They are breaking the law. California Business & Professions Code 6125.
The courts are shutting trust mills down all across the nation:
- Cleveland Bar Assn. v. Sharp Estate Serv., Inc. held that using a review attorney does not cure the Unauthorized Practice of Law violation. In other words, an attorney reviewing the final document does not make what the non-attorneys are doing legal. http://www.sconet.state.oh.us/rod/docs/pdf/0/2005/2005-ohio-6267.pdf
- http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/ca_living_trust.html (California Attorney General Bill Lockyer and Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi have filed a $110 million-plus lawsuit against a living trust mill that tricked senior citizens into using their retirement investments to buy annuities that often made less financial sense for the elderly victims but earned the con artists substantial commissions and other income.)
- http://www.michbar.org/journal/pdf/pdf4article1227.pdf
- http://www.floridaestateplanninglawyerblog.com/2007/12/trust_mills_seminars_pay_72_mi.html
- http://www.floridaestateplanninglawyerblog.com/2008/01/class_action_suit_against_livi.html
- http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/trusts_estates_prof/2008/01/living-trust-sc.html
- http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2007/03/mn_trust_mills.html