Right to Accounting & Breach of Fiduciary Duty
A recent Florida appeals case involving business partners stands for the legal proposition that a right to an accounting is not necessarily a breach of fiduciary duty. Palm Beach beneficiaries of estates & trusts should listen up. You have rights under the Florida Trust Code, for Palm Beach Trusts, and you also have rights under the Florida Probate Code regarding Palm Beach estates. If you are not receiving the information you want about an inheritance or your trust or a Palm Beach Probate, you can file an action for an accounting.
- Palm Beach beneficiaries have a right under Florida Probate & Trust law to “relevant information”
- This includes “accountings”
- Florida Trustees: you are required to make a trust accounting annually
- Florida Personal Representatives: you have to file an inventory and then an accounting before you close the Palm Beach estate
This recent case was about:
- If you want to know how $$$ was spent, ask for an accounting (in this case, it was between business partners: how was $315,000 spent on a business venture? )
- If they won’t tell you where the money went , then file a Palm Beach lawsuit for an accounting
- Request that the Probate Court make the other side produce an accounting
- Once they produce an accounting, then if there is any wrong doing, you can sue for breach of fiduciary duty
2 Points:
- remember that you have to demonstrate that you are ENTITLED to an accounting;
- remember that the legal concept of an action or lawsuit for an accounting is different than, although perhaps related to, a breach of fiduciary duty.
An accounting may be produced and you find or learn that the Palm Beach trustee did nothing wrong.