Category: Beneficiaries

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Free Rider No More — When Can a California Trust Beneficiary Shift Legal Fees to Other Beneficiaries?

By Christopher Miles Kolkey on Posted in Accounting, Beneficiaries, Legal Expenses, Santa Barbara County Superior Court, Trust Administration
American courts (including our California state courts), in contrast to courts in England, do not typically award attorneys’ fees to a lawsuit’s “victor.”  There are, of course, exceptions to this so-called “American Rule.”  Among them is the “common fund” exception, which provides that one who incurs fees winning a lawsuit that creates a fund for … Continue Reading

Barefoot No More – California Supreme Court to Review Standing of Trust Contestants

By Jeffrey S. Galvin on Posted in Beneficiaries, California Supreme Court, Mental Capacity, Tuolumne County Superior Court, Undue Influence, Will/Trust Contests
Can a disinherited person contest a trust amendment under California Probate Code section 17200?  No, said the Court of Appeal last August in Barefoot v. Jennings (2018) 27 Cal.App.5th 1. The Barefoot opinion put pending trust contests in jeopardy, as contestants typically have used section 17200 as the procedural hook to challenge trust amendments that … Continue Reading

Fore! California Court Drives Away Claim that Trustee’s Attorney Breached Trust

By Jeffrey S. Galvin on Posted in Beneficiaries, San Francisco County Superior Court, Trust Administration, Trustees
When attorneys advise errant trustees, how vulnerable are they to breach of trust claims by injured beneficiaries?  A case published last week by the California Court of Appeal provides a defensive roadmap to attorneys who are sued for such claims, along with an occasion for golf metaphors. In Cortese v. Sherwood (2018) 26 Cal.App.5th 445, … Continue Reading

Play It Again: No Contest Clauses Must Be Referenced In Each California Trust Amendment

By Tyson E. Hubbard and Silvio Reggiardo, III on Posted in Appeal, Beneficiaries, Estate Planning, Inheritance Disputes, No Contest Clauses, Trust Administration
No contest clauses are an ever-evolving area of the probate law in California.  The Court of Appeal further refined the rules governing no contest clauses in a decision issued last week, Aviles v. Swearingen (2017) 16 Cal.App.5th 485.  In brief, in order for a no contest clause to apply to a trust amendment, the no … Continue Reading

Take It or Leave It: The Perilous Decision of Whether to Violate a No Contest Clause

By Tyson E. Hubbard on Posted in Beneficiaries, Conflict Avoidance, Creditor Claims, Estate Planning, Inheritance Disputes, No Contest Clauses, Trust Administration, Will/Trust Contests
One of the most dramatic areas of California trust and estate litigation is no contest clauses.  No contest clauses bring a made-for-tv excitement to the practice of trust and estate law because of the risk of disinheritance.  Yet such clauses are widely misunderstood, even among attorneys.… Continue Reading

Just the FAQs: California Trust and Estate Litigation’s Greatest Hits, Part 1

By Tyson E. Hubbard on Posted in Beneficiaries, Estate Planning, Probate, Trust Administration, Trustees
In our Sacramento trust and estate litigation practice there are several questions that come up over and over again.  In many instances, these questions are the building blocks of our practice that lead to more complicated questions that sometimes require the filing of a lawsuit to answer.  As a starting place, below are some of … Continue Reading

California Trust Litigation 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

By Tyson E. Hubbard on Posted in Appeal, Beneficiaries, Santa Barbara County Superior Court, Trust Administration, Trustees
Beneficiaries beware: don’t dive in to trust litigation too quickly.  That lesson was learned the hard way, ironically, by a diving heiress in Williamson v. Brooks (2017) 7 Cal.App.5th 1294.  The California Court of Appeal decision, which related to a trust created by the founder of Kirby Morgan Dive Systems, Inc., addresses the question of … Continue Reading

Notice of Proposed Action May Quiet Back Seat Driving Beneficiaries

By Tyson E. Hubbard on Posted in Asset Distribution, Beneficiaries, Conflict Avoidance, Inheritance Disputes, Trust Administration, Trustees
Acting as a trustee can be a thankless and time consuming job, especially when the reward at the end is nothing more than second-guessing from trust beneficiaries.  In our Sacramento-based trust and estate practice, we represent trustees who have strained relationships with beneficiaries, whether their siblings, step-relatives, or otherwise.  One useful tool to help trustees manage … Continue Reading

Stepmother Prevails on Accounting Issues at Court of Appeal

By Tyson E. Hubbard on Posted in Accounting, Appeal, Beneficiaries, Trust Administration
Sometimes stepmothers are just misunderstood. Babbitt v. Superior Court (2016) 246 Cal.App.4th 1135, recently decided by the California Court of Appeal, involves one of the fact patterns that we often see in California trust litigation: children from a decedent’s prior marriage have conflict with their biological parent’s surviving spouse. In other words, after dad passes away, … Continue Reading

An Accountant and a Lawyer Walk Into a Bar…

By Tyson E. Hubbard on Posted in Accounting, Asset Distribution, Beneficiaries, Trust Administration
At the Sacramento Estate Planning Council’s 2016 Technical Forum on Tuesday an elderly gentleman sitting next to me said “old accountants never die, they just lose their balance” and “old attorneys just lose their appeal(s).”  Sometimes both happen when an unbalanced accounting results in a lost appeal.  The California Court of Appeal issued a rare … Continue Reading

Fee Fi Fo Fum: Trustee Fees Can Be a Giant Issue in Trust Administration

By Tyson E. Hubbard on Posted in Beneficiaries, Trust Administration, Trustee Fees, Trustees
Trustee fees are common flash points in the administration of family trusts. Trustees may put in hundreds of hours cleaning out and selling the family home, dealing with accountants, lawyers, and realtors, and otherwise working to distribute assets out to the beneficiaries. A diligent trustee provides a valuable service and should be compensated for his … Continue Reading

Tick, Tock … When Will I Get My Share of Mom and Dad’s Trust?

By Jeffrey S. Galvin on Posted in Beneficiaries, Trust Administration
Most family trusts call for the outright distribution of assets to specific individuals (i.e., remainder beneficiaries) after the creators of the trust are gone.  In the most common scenario, the assets get doled out to the adult kids after Mom and Dad pass.  Even when a trustee is diligent and the situation is straightforward, it … Continue Reading

The Rising Tide of Trust and Estate Litigation

By Jeffrey S. Galvin on Posted in Beneficiaries, Inheritance Disputes, Trust Administration
Inheritance fights are nothing new, nor is public fascination with them. Charles Dickens published Bleak House in 1853, satirizing the English legal system in the context of the fictional case of Jarndyce v. Jarndyce. More recently, John Grisham’s Sycamore Row, released in 2013, was at the top of the New York Times best seller list. … Continue Reading
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