By distributing some trusts years before and adding the assets of those trusts to other trusts, the trustee waived claims for commissions payable from those trusts, as well as attorneys’ fees incurred later. The trustee also failed to provide clear … Continue reading
Tag Archives: Attorney fees
Claim for compensation for care of parents by one of their sons was denied for lack of “clear, direct, precise and convincing” evidence of an agreement for compensation, but claim for family exemption was allowed even though the decedent had … Continue reading
Decedent gave instructions to attorney for the preparation of a will, but she died in the hospital without signing the will because COVID-19 protocols prevented her attorney or others from delivering the will to her for her signature, and so … Continue reading
An attorney who represents a beneficiary of an estate to remove an executor and who later represents the same person as successor executor does not have a conflict of interest. An objection claiming that the destruction of a computer caused … Continue reading
The compensation of a lawyer who served as administrator of the estate, submitted a fee agreement to beneficiaries specifying compensation at an hourly rate, and kept hourly time records with specific descriptions of work was nevertheless reduced by more than … Continue reading
A 1954 letter from the corporate trustee established an agreement for trustee compensation of 5% of income, and the trustee did not produce evidence of extraordinary services to merit additional compensation or that the resulting fee was unreasonable. However, neither … Continue reading
A lawyer representing the beneficiary of an estate is entitled to a “charging lien” against the beneficiary’s share of the estate for work performed before being discharged by the beneficiary, based on an oral agreement that the lawyer’s billings could … Continue reading
Executor and her attorney were surcharged for excessive and unreasonable attorney fees because the attorney time records that were submitted had the descriptions of services redacted and so they failed to meet their burden of proof. Stoughton Estate, 10 Fid.Rep.3d … Continue reading
The decedent’s inter vivos trust directed the division of the trust into a marital deduction trust and nonmarital trust, but no marital trust was necessary because the gross estate was less than the federal estate tax exclusion amount. The administration … Continue reading