Q I am inheriting from my sister’s trust and my uncle is the trustee. He told us that we would be getting our money this month. I made an offer to buy a property based on that promise and now he says we won’t get our money until September. Because of his broken promise to give me the money this month, I will lose the deposit I made and also will lose the property. Can I sue him? I am so outraged!

A Save your outrage, this was your mistake. A beneficiary of a trust should never, ever enter into a binding contract in the hope they will receive a trust or estate distribution at a certain time. You should not have signed a purchase agreement until the funds were in your account. I suspect your uncle did not absolutely promise you the money this month and, if he did, he should never have made such a promise.

Trust administration can go smoothly and distribution made in a timely manner, but any number of unforeseen problems can arise and delay distribution.

This is why I always advise would-be beneficiaries not to commit their inherited funds until those funds are in hand.

Also, depending on where he is on the administration, your uncle would only have a rough idea of how much of the trust funds he could distribute.

Previously unknown debts, taxes or other legitimate obligations of your sister or the trust can surface during administration making an exact calculation of the distribution amount tricky.

As for suing your uncle, in the U.S. anyone can file a lawsuit against another but whether you could prevail in trial is another question. The tort laws in the U.K. are a great model and it would be great if the U.S. would adopt them.

In the U.K., if I were to bring a lawsuit against another and I do not win my case, I am responsible for paying their legal fees to defend the suit — in addition to my own legal fees.

As you can imagine, suit filers in the U.K. must be confident their evidence will support a successful trial which naturally acts as a deterrent for frivolous or unfounded lawsuits. Unfortunately, this is not the case in the U.S. at this time and so we see more suits filed that may or may not have the merit to win and are generally a nuisance.

If you sue your uncle over this delay, you will pay your attorney and your uncle will use trust funds to defend himself — which ultimately takes money out of your pocket. Also, a lawsuit will further delay distribution of the trust assets. When I act as a trustee and if a suit is filed, we never make distributions until the matter is resolved which can take years. Finally, the legal fees and costs to go forward with a full trial will run you $60,000, $100,000 or more.

Lastly, consider the damage that suing your uncle will do to family relationships. Thanksgiving dinner could be a tad uncomfortable if you are sharing the cranberry sauce across the table with someone you filed a lawsuit against.

Speak with our uncle and see if there is any possibility that he can distribute at least some of the funds so you can complete or at least extend the closing on the property. Sometimes sellers will accommodate a later closing if you increase the deposit. It shows good faith on your part. Ultimately, if you lose your deposit and the property, this is your fault. No one should ever enter a binding contract based on funds that we don’t have in hand.

Liza Horvath has more than 30 years of experience in the estate planning and trust fields and is the president of Monterey Trust Management, a financial and trust management company. This is not intended to be legal or tax advice. Questions? Email liza@montereytrust.com or call (831)646-5262