Attorney fees pd by one trust for other trust

[Linda Mathey]

My client is the trustee of her parent's trusts. Mother died 3 years ago and trust was set up with father as trustee. A portion of her trust was QTIP. Father died 1 year ago and my client was successor trustee on both trusts. Father also had some assets not in name of trust. An Ohio estate return was filed that had to include the QTIP interest in mother's trust.

Trustee paid attorney's bill for father's estate directly from mother's trust. Since estate is not closed, we are filing a combined 1041 for the estate and father's trust. I think this should be considered a distribution and I would need to do a K-1 to his estate to carry the pro-rata share of income to his estate in addition to the K-1's for the two children based on distributions each party received.

However, just thinking outloud...since father is deceased can his estate actually receive income from mother's trust or should his estate repay her trust?

If anyone out there would like to help me brainstorm the correct way to treat this....I would appreciate your comments