various relatives such as surviving spouses, parents, brothers and sisters, children and grandchildren) may have a legitimate need to be aware of the Trust and what it says. The law recognizes that people who are heirs at law (i.e. Some people are under the wrong impression that you only have to notify people who are named trust beneficiaries. The notification must be sent to (i) each trust beneficiary (ii) each heir of a deceased Trustor and (iii) the California Attorney General if the trust is a charitable trust.
While the Trustors are alive, the trust is typically revocable and changeable so the law does not give the Beneficiaries any rights to see the trust or its provisions while a trust is revocable or changeable. The parties involved in a trust are typically the Trustors who set up the trust, the Trustees who administer the trust and the Beneficiaries who are the persons who are to receive assets and income from the trust. Because trusts are not filed or recorded with any government agency, laws have been established to make sure that heirs and trust beneficiaries have some way to find out about a trust and its assets.