Category: Beneficiaries

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

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) ___ Cal.App.5th ___, … Continue Reading

Don’t Let Time Run Out on Updating Your Life Insurance Beneficiaries

By Jeffrey S. Galvin on July 2, 2018 Posted in Beneficiaries, Divorce, Probate, San Mateo County Superior Court

Your ex-spouse may take under your life insurance policy if you do not change your beneficiaries and there’s nothing a California probate court can do about it. So ruled the Court of Appeal last month in Estate of Post (2018) ____ Cal.App.5th ____.… 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 November 19, 2017 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) ___ Cal.App.5th ___. 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 August 21, 2017 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 March 20, 2017 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 February 27, 2017 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 December 6, 2016 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 May 2, 2016 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 February 2, 2016 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 January 4, 2016 Posted in Beneficiaries, Trust Administration, 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 December 21, 2015 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 December 1, 2015 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

When Does Influence Become Undue?

By Jeffrey S. Galvin on November 24, 2015 Posted in Beneficiaries, Undue Influence, Will/Trust Contests

Undue influence is a major theme in trust and estate litigation. But when does advocacy for a change in an estate plan cross the line and become undue? There is no bright line test for undue influence under California law. Almost always, the proof is indirect. While there is no video of Sister pressuring Mom … Continue Reading

Welcome to our trust and estate litigation blog. Inheritance disputes are on the rise nationally as the baby boomers age and wealth passes from one generation to the next. This is high stress litigation, often pitting sibling against sibling or second spouse against step-children.

We cover hot button issues in California trust litigation and probate litigation, ranging from the flash points that we see in our cases to recent developments in the field. We discuss trust contests, will contests, and administration disputes. We explore issues of mental capacity, undue influence, fiduciary duty, and financial elder abuse. We follow how California courts grapple with dementia attributed to Alzheimer’s disease, which is becoming more prevalent in our population. We comment on local court practices, including procedures in Department 129 (the probate unit) of Sacramento County Superior Court. We hope that our blog will be of interest to estate planning professionals and to family members immersed in trust and estate disputes. We invite you to follow our blog and to get to know us through our posts.

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