“What?”
“The secondary beneficiary.”
Our policy listed me as primary.
Geoffrey had always been secondary.
Now the secondary beneficiary was a trust.
Hawthorne Family Legacy Trust.
Neither of us had ever heard of it.
Patricia whispered, “What is that?”
I called Martin.
He looked it up.
The trust had been created eight months earlier.
Trustee:
Allison Geoffrey Humbert.
The name was strange.
Allison’s legal name was Allison Marie Humbert.
Geoffrey’s was Geoffrey Alan Humbert.
The filing seemed to combine their names.
But the trust listed our home address.
Our home.
Not theirs.
Martin asked us to send him every page.
The next morning, he called again.
“This trust appears to be connected to an estate plan.”
“Our estate plan?”
“Possibly.”
“We didn’t create one.”
“Someone did.”
I sat in silence.
Patricia was beside me.
“What does the trust own?”
Martin hesitated.
“Right now? Very little.”
That sounded like good news.
