The trustees of a trust for the lifetime benefit of the decedent made discretionary distributions to the decedent for which the decedent signed agreements indemnifying the trustees. Following the death of the decedent, the remainder beneficiaries sued the trustees, and the decedent’s estate assumed the costs of defending the trustees. The Orphans’ Court had held that the settlement payments by the estate to the trust remaindermen were not deductible debts of the estate under section 2129(b) of the Inheritance and Estate Tax Act (72 P.S. § 7129(b)) because one of the trustees who was indemnified was also the counsel to the decedent and had a confidential relationship with the decedent, resulting in multiple conflicts of interest (e.g., that trustee signed some of the agreements both as agent for the decedent and as an indemnified trustee), and so the indemnification agreements were not “bona fide” agreements. The Commonwealth Court held that the estate had the burden of showing that the indemnification agreements were “fair under the circumstances and beyond the reach of suspicion” and failed to make that showing. It was also not an error or abuse of discretion by the Orphans’ Court to conclude that the trust litigation expenses were not deductible by the estate because the litigation did not involve the estate and did not benefit the estate even though the court had approved the payment of the expenses from the estate. Estate of Richard M. Scaife v. Commonwealth, ___ A.4th ___, 88 CD 2024 (Pa. Cmwlth. 9/23/2025), aff’g in part, 2 Fid.Rep.4th 61 (Westmoreland O.C. 2023).