This trust lawsuit, decided a few days ago, involved three siblings and three trusts created by their parents. A brother and sister sued their brother Kevin, as trustee, to remove him as trustee and for their #trust inheritance.
This case involves nine family members involved in two estates, one guardianship and three trusts:
- dad created a #revocable trust
- dad created a #trust under his will
- Mom created a #revocable trust
- dad passed away on January 25, 2009
- mom had a #guardianship before she died on October 9, 2010
- daughter Tara had two children who sued Tara’s brother Kevin as #trustee
- son Shawn had two children
- Kevin was the trustee and the defendant or respondent in this #trust lawsuit
#TRUST BENEFICIARIES SUE #TRUSTEE FOR #TRUST MONEY — where’s my #inheritance?
Trust beneficiaries under dad’s trust sued Kevin, the #trustee, complaining that Kevin had only distributed a fraction of their #trust inheritance to them. Why weren’t the #trust beneficiaries receiving their full inheritance ?
Some of the #trust beneficiaries of mom’s trust received nothing at all.
Q: Where’s my #trust money ?
Why didn’t the #trustee distribute the #trust funds?
Dad’s trust that was supposed to be created under dad’s #last will but was never created. Why was dad’s #trust never created? Are there reasonable explanations always something else going on?
TRUSTEE WANTS TO DISTRIBUTE #TRUST MONEY AND TERMINATE TRUSTS
In March 2011, the #trustee sent a letter to the #trust beneficiaries
- asking them to sign a #trust receipt and release and
- promising to make their #trust distributions to them if they signed that #receipt and release.
- the trustee wanted to be indemnified
- the trustee provided informal accountings
TRUST BENEFICIARIES SUE #TRUSTEE
Almost a year later, in February 2012, the #trust beneficiaries sue the trustee to:
- remove the #trustee
- #surcharge the trustee
- appoint a #successor trustee
- #breach of fiduciary duty
- #trust damages
TEMPORARY TRUSTEE REQUESTED AS MEDIATION FAILS
The #trust beneficiaries requested that the #probate court appoint an #interim special fiduciary — a kind of #temporary trustee or #special trustee— when they questioned certain transfers from a checking account. The #trust beneficiaries learned about this through the #discovery process of the #trust litigation.
The parties went to #mediation, but #mediation failed.
PROBATE COURT RULINGS ON #TRUST LITIGATION
What did the #probate court do? The #probate court found
- the #trustee #breached his fiduciary duties as trustee when he listed some real estate for sale .
- #Attorneys fees were awarded for that part of the #trust litigation.
- the rest of the litigation was frivolous and
- sanctioned one of the beneficiaries by making one of the beneficiaries give up her inheritance from the trust.
- ordered that the remaining trust assets be distributed to the remaining beneficiaries
On appeal, the appeals court affirmed the breach of fiduciary duty by the trustee and reversed on the fees and sanctions to the trust beneficiary. Sounds like the trust beneficiary was glad she appealed.
FOR REFERRAL SOURCES, LAWYERS AND LITIGATORS ONLY
We help you with Florida estate and trust administration and trials, and #probate appeals.
Our #Florida probate law firm
- does not prepare estate plans
- does not draft wills and trusts
- does not steal your clients or your probates
Our #West Palm Beach, Florida #probate litigation firm :
- hands your clients back to you at the conclusion of the #Florida matter—after all, they are YOUR clients
- we try cases & handle appeals
- our practice is restricted to #Florida probate disputes & contested guardianships
- we work with you on #Florida estate administration, #Florida probate
- we litigate for and protect beneficiary rights
- we represent #Florida personal representatives or executors, and #Florida trustees
- we receive approximately 95% of our clients from other lawyers
- we take contingency fee cases
Who are we? Our firm is comprised of
- serious Florida litigators, with an outstanding reputation in our legal community
- focused probate lawyers,
- experienced paralegals and support staff.
We have been involved in high profile, nine figure, multi-million-dollar #Florida estates, including Madoff matters, old # Palm Beach money and complex trusts and multi-party #Florida probates. We also handle “small” or “simple” matters. All we do is litigate and help you with #Florida estate and trust administration. #Tortious interference with an inheritance and allegations of #undue influence, and #will challenges and trust challenges are a unique subspecialty of the law. Does your client know which ones to file, when to do that, and why? Do you know the different ways to prove each case? How about quantifying or assessing damages? It would be our pleasure to work with you and to serve your clients. For a complete copy of this very recent legal opinion please email michelle@pankauskilawfirm.com.
John Pankauski, www.johnpankauski.com, is the author of The Trustee’s Book – An Individual’s Guide To Money, Misfits, Marriages, and Mismanagement, and the upcoming The $41 Trillion Inheritance War. He is an estate and trust litigator in West Palm Beach, Florida, www.pankauskilawfirm.com and has been featured on the CBS Evening News, in The Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch, NBC, ABC and Fox networks.