The vehicles are established. Prob. Code § 850 allows a petition for an order where a trust claims property held by another, which is the standard route for recovering assets a third party or a beneficiary took. If the person who took the money is also serving as trustee, Prob. Code § 15642 provides for removal of a trustee, with grounds including breach of trust, unfitness, and substantial inability to manage the trust property or to resist fraud or undue influence. Prob. Code § 17200 is the general statute for bringing internal-affairs matters, including compelling an accounting, before the probate court. Deadlines are real: under Prob. Code § 16061.7, the trustee's notification starts a 120-day clock for any trust contest. Understand clearly what this is. Recovering stolen assets and removing a trustee are contested proceedings — trust litigation — and they are fought with discovery, depositions and trial dates, not with a petition everyone signs.
Fixing or Changing a Trust · California
Can I remove a beneficiary who stole from my parent?
Usually not by removing them, and the distinction matters because it points you at a remedy that actually works. If your parent is alive and has capacity, the answer is easy: it is your parent's trust, and your parent can amend it to reduce or eliminate that person's share. If your parent has died, the trust's terms are fixed, and no one — not you, not the trustee, not the other beneficiaries — gets to rewrite them to punish someone. Courts do not modify trusts as a sanction. But that is not the end of it. If your sister took money from your mother's accounts, the trust has a claim against your sister for the property she took. The claim is a debt she owes, and the practical result of pursuing it often looks like what you wanted anyway: the recovered property comes back into the trust, and her share can be reduced by what she owes it. You are not removing a beneficiary; you are collecting from one.
This page is general information about California law, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Figures and deadlines change, and every family’s situation is different. Last reviewed August 2026.
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Read the answerNext Step
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