Is a trustee required by law to provide each beneficiary with a copy of the trust?

My father passed away last month and I have been told a friend of his wife's is trustee of my father estae. I have asked him for a copy so that I can make sure my fathers final wishes have been followed but he refuses to give me this information. He reports that my father left everything except a very small life insurance policy to his wife of 4 yrs. The insurance policy for $3,000 is to go to me so I have been informed. This "trustee" has provided me a phone number for an attorney he said is handling everything but after 12 phone calls and messages this attorney has not returned any of my calls.
Any ideas how I can obtain this information without having to hire an attorney? Thank you.

Thanks for that suggestion. I am in the trust according to the trustee but only for the small life insurance policy. As a beneficiary I thought I was entitled to a copy of the trust so that I could verify my fathers last wishes. Is this the case. It seems a shame to have to hire an attorney when if everything was on the up and up the trustee should provide me the requested copy of the trust. Does anyone know if he is required to provide me a copy as a benficiary???

I'm not sure if the trustee has to provide a copy of the Trust to a beneficiary under California law. You may wish to reference the links below for guidance. Don't reply on me though, because I know nothing about California's Trust code and there's no telling if the code online is up to date. Good luck!

*This is not legal advice and I am not an attorney licensed to practice law in your state. If you have any questions whatsoever about your situation, you should consult an attorney for advice.

you are in a tough situation. here's what I would do:

1- keep calling the attorney, every day @ 9:00 AM.
2- if that doesn't work after 2 weeks, contact the trustee again, this time threatening the trustee with a lawsuit for a full accounting. you have enough of an interest in the situation to at least get a peek at the trust document to see if you are in there.
3- if 2 doesn't work, hire a lawyer on contingency to go after them. there is really no way around this if you can't get it sorted out. sorry.

The thing in situations like this is - if you aren't in there, why won't they show it to you? That's very suspicious.