I’m 17. My Grandfather Just Passed Away & Left Me Way More Money Than My Cousins. Now My Uncle Is Trying To Take Me To Court.

Location: Split residence between Utah & Hawaii. Grandparents estate is in Utah. Uncle & Cousins live in California. Aunt & other cousins live in Oregon.

I’m not going to pretend I understand the case in the slightest but I would really love for someone to help me make sense of this because I’m the one being taken to court. Recently my grandfather passed away, 2 years after his wife (my grandmother’s) death, so all of their assets and the trusts they set up were administered to their 7 grandchildren. 2 of my cousins were adopted by my uncle as babies when he married their dad. They still have a connection with their Bio mom’s family and have trusts set up through them, so they were each given enough money to buy a car but they didn’t get a trust. That left 5 of us, aged 2, 17, 19, 20, & 22. My great grandparents began a certain food company and sold it but kept stock, so my mom and her siblings have trusts that my grandparents had been adding assets to. The trusts that were started are only for the 5 of us.

We recently met with a trustee and found out that my trust was given 5.2 million & my brother & other 3 cousin’s have 2.6, 2.4, 2.4, & 2.2. Mine gives me a chunk of money for my 18th birthday and a little more freedom with how I use it until I’m 30, when we all get to receive annual chunks of the trust. Again, I don’t fully understand the legal terms, let alone WHY. Nobody actually knows other than my uncle is 15 years younger than my mom and her sister and he has addiction problems so his relationship was strained with my grandparents. He had a 2 year old who my grandparents never even met. My gran & Granddad wanted our careers to be influential and help people because they were into philanthropy. I’m the only one of the 6 older cousins who hasn’t been a business or finance major and wants to go into medicine and/or own my own business. I also visited them the most because I would spend time with them when my brother went to sleep away camp.

Anyways, my sort of estranged uncle’s son who I HAVE met did get a trust even though my grandparents never met him but now there’s a trial set because he claims that since my grandma had dementia this arrangement was manipulated. He also argued that his son wasn’t old enough to make decisions like the rest of us s my grandma shouldn’t have been able to decide and sign for this. My grandpa didn’t have dementia though, and he was the one that made the final arrangements. There is tons of evidence that she did have memory problems but nobody knows when they started definitively. Either way my grandpa was completely competent and died from anaphylaxis complications actually.

Where do I go from here? What he’s claiming is lack of capacity and undue influence for when the trust arrangements were made. I actually have to be there and my family doesn’t know who should represent me because the date is set before I turn 18.

EDIT: from what I have gathered, I need MY OWN really good lawyer, a therapist, and maybe a financial advisor. Cool. I have no idea how to go about this and what to look for. Is there any other objects or services people recommend and perceive as worth the money? Also for those concerned about my security, DM’s are closed and I will be EXTREMELY cautious. I will not be engaging with anyone about this matter over DM.