Breach of Fiduciary Duty

When someone is named as an executor, administrator, or trustee, they take on a fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of the estate or trust beneficiaries. That duty is serious and it is enforceable. When a fiduciary mismanages assets, fails to account for funds, makes self-dealing transactions, distributes assets improperly, or ignores their obligations, they can be held personally liable for the resulting harm.

Common fact patterns include an executor who takes months or years to administer an estate while assets lose value or are misappropriated, a trustee who invests trust assets in their own business dealings, and an administrator who pays themselves excessive fees or fails to properly notify creditors and beneficiaries. Beneficiaries can have standing to demand accountings and to surcharge a fiduciary who has breached their duty. If you believe a fiduciary is not acting in the estate’s best interests, call to discuss your options.

Fiduciary duty claims in estate and trust matters often involve someone the family trusted: a sibling, a long-time family friend, or a professional advisor. That does not make the breach any less actionable. If any of this sounds familiar, reach out to us today.

Estate Administration Disputes

Even without outright misconduct, estate administration can generate disputes. The interpretation of ambiguous will provisions, disagreements over how specific assets should be valued or distributed, disputes among beneficiaries over the executor’s decisions, and challenges to creditor claims all arise during the normal course of probate. Interested parties, including heirs, beneficiaries, and in some cases creditors, have standing to raise these issues before the appropriate court.

If you are a beneficiary who believes the executor is not acting in the estate’s best interests, is dragging out the administration, or is making decisions that favor some beneficiaries over others, you have legal options. Courts handling estate matters have broad supervisory authority and can compel accountings, surcharge fiduciaries for losses, and remove executors who are not performing their duties. Call to discuss what is happening and what your options are.

Will Contests

Contesting a will is a high-burden undertaking. Courts begin with a strong presumption that a will is valid, and overcoming that presumption requires substantial evidence of a specific legal defect. The recognized grounds for challenging a will include lack of testamentary capacity, undue influence that overcame the testator’s free will, fraud, and improper execution that failed to meet the formalities required by state law.

Not every unfair result is a legally defective will. A person has the right to leave their estate however they choose, including in ways that seem unfair to family members. A will contest requires a factual basis, not just a sense that the outcome was wrong. Where the facts potentially support a challenge — a vulnerable decedent isolated by a caregiver in the months before death, or a sudden change in estate plan that benefited one family member at the expense of others — the case may be worth evaluating. Will contests must be filed within the applicable statutory deadline after the will is admitted to probate, and those deadlines are strict.