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. … Continue reading
Tag Archives: Attorney fees
Although trustees may employ legal counsel to advise them about discretionary distributions, and to negotiate settlements with beneficiaries, the requested legal fees were largely denied because they were excessive, imprudent, and disproportionate to the value of the trust. Mandell Trust, … Continue reading
The executor of a deceased trustee had standing to object to the account filed by the surviving trustee when other beneficiaries joined in the objections and the objection to standing was waived by not raising it until after two and … Continue reading
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
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