Undue influence in Florida is a cause of action used to challenge the validity of atestamentary document, whether a Last Will & Testament or a Trust.  As the Second District Court of Appeal in Florida noted, “undue influence, as it is required for invalidation of a will, must amount to over-persuasion, duress, force, coercion, or artful or fraudulent contrivances to such a degree that there is destruction of the free agency and will power of the one making the will. Mere affection, kindness or attachment of one person for another may not of itself constitute undue influence.”  Heasley v. Evans.

Trusts are not a one size fits all kind of thing so I cannot provide you with an exhaustive list of the duties of your trustee. But certaingeneral duties are a result of the Florida Trust Code and apply to all trusts. Here are ten duties your trustee owes you. If a trustee in Florida fails to fulfill their duties you may havean action for breach of fiduciary duty of the trustee and be entitled to cash damages. 

The media is reporting that probate litigation may erupt now that Whitney  Houston’s daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown, is on life support and her chances of survival have been described as dismal.  Reports ask who willcontrol the medical and health care decisions of the daughter of Bobby Brown andWhitney Houston and who will inherit a reported $20 million inheritance or trust fundwhich she got from the estate of Whitney Houston.

Florida Probate Courts and families of loved ones both want anequitable distribution of assets upon the death of an individual who resided or owned property in Florida. Florida law allows an individual to contest a will because of undue influence, fraud or mental capacity. What follows is a procedural crask course in contesting a will in Florida.

Individualized Retirement Plans are exceeding popular right now for a numberof reasons, often called IRAs , a growing size of the American population is using these as retirement planning vehicles. Its not something that we like to talk about but what happens to your IRA if you die prematurely? The answer depends on who you name as the beneficiary, so be careful. You may have been told, don’t worry about your IRA it is protected because Florida has statutory protections for IRAs. If that’s the case you may have misunderstood or been mislead. While Florida does have statutory protection for inherited IRA’s, this protection only applies if your beneficiaries are residents of Florida at the time of your death.

In Florida just because you are deceased does not mean you lose all rights to bring and defend law suits. After death a person’s estate takes over their litigation but the subject matter of the overlying suits are largely the same. This week in West Palm Beach a Court dealt with a case brought by a decedent against a pharmacy for negligently filling prescriptions. This case is an example of how Florida’s wrongful death actions require an estate in probate before commencing.

A husband dies leaving an estate worth fifty million dollars, and he leaves his less than pleased wife a mere two millions, looks like she needs to adjust her spending habits. But not so fast, in Florida elective share laws allow the surviving spouse to claim a percentage of the estate in lieu of what they were left under the decedent’s will.

What will a Court do if you promise the same property to multiple people in different documents? It depends but a recent Fourth District Court of Appeals case sheds some light on the analysis in a rare instance: where a trust conflicts with an LLC agreement (a type of contract).

When you have a trust that you are a beneficiary of you have a right to order anaccounting of that trust. The Fourth District recently dealt with the issue of laches and the right to demand an accounting as beneficiary of a trust. Laches is a defense to a lawsuit which basically says that the person who filed the suit waited too long and should be stopped from bringing the action legally. The Court in Corya v. Sanders took a hard line that a beneficiary need not know of a legal right for it to begin tolling under the doctrine of laches. 

Serving as a trustee in Florida can be stressful, and in many instances pleasing everyone can be impossible. What due process does a trustee in Florida have when their removal is requested? This is a more complex problem then you may realize at first.