Florida Probate Litigator John Pankauski Testifies as Trust Expert in Palm Beach Trust Trial: November 4, 2015

John Pankauski, a probate litigation lawyer at the West Palm Beach, Florida law firm Pankauski Law Firm PLLC, testified yesterday, November 4, 2015, as an expert on Florida Trusts.  Pankauski’s trial testimony was in a trust lawsuit in Palm Beach County, Florida, in the probate division of the Main Courthouse, West Palm Beach.  The trust lawsuit where Pankauski testified was brought by a trust beneficiary against his brother, the sole trustee of a family trust. The trust litigation involved claims by the beneficiary against the trustee for breach of fiduciary duty, what the proper standard of care of a Florida trustee was, as well as issues of self-dealing and conflicts of interest by the trustee.

Trust Expert Pankauski Testifies in Breach of Trust Case

• John Pankauski handles trust lawsuits throughout Florida and has an office in Palm Beach County, Florida, where he practices estate & trust law with a handful of other lawyers and experienced paralegals
• Pankauski was hired as an expert by a trust beneficiary to provide expert testimony in the Cross v. Cross case
• This was a trust lawsuit brought by a beneficiary of a Florida Trust against his brother trustee
• The allegations against the Florida Trustee, who lived out of state, were that the trusteebreached his fiduciary duty to his trust beneficiary
• There were also allegations that the trustee violated his duty of loyalty which a Florida trustee owes to his trust beneficiaries
• Finally, there was an issue of whether the trustee violated or breached his duty of impartiality to his trust beneficiaries

Did the Trustee Breach His Fiduciary Duty?

• Pankauski, who “wrote the book” on trustees, is the author of Pankauski’s Trustee’s Guide: 10 Steps to Family Trustee Excellence
• You can purchase Pankauski’s Trustee’s Guide at this amazon.com link:http://www.amazon.com/Pankauskis-Trustees-Guide-Trustee-Excellence-ebook/dp/B00TWLGLPQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1446725489&sr=8-1&keywords=pankauski
• Pankauski wrote Pankauski’s Trustee’s Guide because he saw, in his Florida trust law practice, that a number of individual family members who served as family trustee were behaving badly
• Pankauski’s experience was that many individuals who serve as trustee of a Florida trust were not complying with their fiduciary duties under Florida Trust Law, also known as the Florida Trust Code
• You can read about duties of trustees of a Florida Trust by clicking on this link which will take you to the Florida Trust Code, also known as Florida Statutes Chapter 736:http://www.leg.state.fl.us/STATUTES/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=0700-0799/0736/0736PARTVIIIContentsIndex.html
• Step-parents vs. Adult children from another marriage: many times, there is a step father or step mother serving as trustee and he or she does not like the stepchchildrenadult beneficiaries of the trust.  Right? How many adult children don’t like dad’s 2nd wife? How many adult children don’t get along with mom’s new husband?
• Or, often in Florida Trusts, there is sibling rivalry where one sister or brother can’t stand the other, or they simply don’t get along
• That’s what happened in this Palm Beach trust lawsuit where Pankauski was hired as an expert to testify on the trustee’s conduct

Palm Beach Trust Lawsuit Pits Brother Beneficiary Against Brother Trustee: did the Florida trustee breach his fiduciary duty?

• Pankauski testified for over 2 hours on the stand in this Palm Beach trust lawsuit in the Main Courthouse, West Palm Beach, Florida, probate division
• Pankauski testified as to breach of fiduciary duty, breach of duty of loyalty, breach of duty of impartiality and what powers the trust document gave or did not give to the trustee
• The trustee was a brother who did not get along with his brother beneficiary
• Pankauski testified that not renting out three income producing rental properties in a beach town was a breach of fiduciary duty by the trustee who had a duty to make trust assets, like real estate, productive of income
• Pankauski also provided rebuttal testimony for the trustee’s own expert who had testified earlier in the trial