Trustee Removed and Assessed Legal Fees

The trustee was properly removed for commingling trust assets with his own, failing to make distributions in accordance with the trust instrument, and making distributions to himself without the approval of a disinterested trustee as required by the trust instrument. The Orphans’ Court properly directed distributions to one beneficiary because the trustee had denied distributions based on criteria outside of the trust instrument, but erred in directing distributions to another beneficiary because there was inadequate evidence as to the financial needs of that beneficiary. The court did not abuse its discretion in ordering the trustee to pay legal fees and costs of the beneficiaries for obdurate and vexatious conduct before and after the petition for removal was filed. Hallowell v. Hallowell, 1157 MDA 2022 (Pa. Super. 8/15/2023) (non-precedential).

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Comments are closed.