A very recent #trust lawsuit, whose opinion was just released, literally days ago, has facts that could make for a bestseller or a Hollywood movie:
- successful businessman accumulates a substantial rental property portfolio
- decides to take a vow of poverty,
- donates everything to a #trust constructed by a “charitable society” that focuses upon the lymphatic system as the source of good health,
- becomes a minister within that society, and retains the right to manage the property he has conveyed to the #trust until
- he flees the country as a fugitive from justice days before he is supposed to report to prison.
After his departure, can you guess what happened?
Everyone is fighting over the #trust money.
#Trust disputes arise between his brothers, former business associates, and children.
HOW SHOULD THE #TRUSTE BE MANAGED & WHO ARE THE #TRUST BENEFICIARIES?
Here’s the background :
- Apparently motivated by aggressive #tax planning , the #trust creator, or #trust grantor, or # trust settlor, took a vow of poverty and
- transferred all of his property in a #trust for the benefit of a purported charity
- The #trust documents, presumably created for tax purposes, left him in control of of the #trust assets
- the #trust documents are “at best unduly complicated and at worst incomprehensible“
HOW DO I SETTLE THIS #TRUST DISAGREEMENT?
What do you do when you don’t understand the #trust document? What do you do when #trust beneficiaries and family members disagree on what the #trust document says? A judge decides.
#SELF SETTLED TRUSTS, #ASSET PROTECTION & INCOME TAX
You cannot create a trust to avoid paying income tax. US citizens and resident aliens are taxed on their worldwide income regardless of the source. You can’t place your money in offshore accounts, trusts, give it to a charity, or create some multilayered international transaction and pretend that you can avoid the US income tax .
#Asset protection trusts may permit you to create a trust in certain jurisdictions or certain states and receive income or #trust principal , but keep those #trust assets safe from lawsuits . However, you cannot control those #trust assets or direct them .
WHO WILL WIN THIS #TRUST LAWSUIT?
The #trust creator evidently had control over the #trust assets and # trust real estate until he ran into trouble and was supposed to go to prison . He fled.
There were motions for summary judgment, #trust intervenors, questions about the authenticity of certain #trust documents, and multiple parties , all trying to sort out # trust , #beneficiary rights, #trust inheritance rights, rights of the family, the ownership of real estate, what assets were in the trust, and who was entitled to the income. As the court said: Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction
FOR REFERRAL SOURCES, LAWYERS AND LITIGATORS
We help you with Florida estate and trust administration and trials, and #probate appeals.
Our #Florida probate law firm
- does not draft 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 litigation—after all, they are YOUR clients
- we try cases
- we handle appeals
- restricts its practice 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 95% of our clients from other lawyers
- we take contingency fee cases
Who are we? Our firm is comprised of
- serious Florida litigators,
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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.