Trust Litigation: It Can Happen To You
Toward the end of the movie The Usual Suspects, a criminal’s inner monologue tells the audience, in voiceover narration, “The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” Financial planners would have you believe that trusts are similarly elusive, that they can simply veil themselves and become invisible to the probate court and to the IRS. Yes, it has happened that trusts have faded from view, such that no one is sure where to find them and whether they ever existed at all, but these are a rare exception. Luckily for the beneficiaries of trusts, trusts and their trustees are not above the law. The courts of Florida have jurisdiction to rule on disputes arising from trusts executed in Florida. Beneficiaries and trustees have the right to bring their trust-related disputes before the courts. There are several common reasons that disputes can arise from trusts, and it is almost always less expensive to resolve these disputes without going to court. For help establishing a trust or resolving disputes arising from an existing trust, contact a Tampa estate planning lawyer.
Challenges to the Validity of a Trust
Estate planning lawyers encourage clients to establish trusts because they enable you to avoid many of the problems to which wills are vulnerable. While trusts have some advantages in this regard, it is still possible for a beneficiary, or someone who believes that he or she should be a beneficiary, to challenge the validity of a trust. The plaintiff in such litigation is the person who believes that the trust is legally invalid, and the defendant is the trustee. These are some reasons a trust might be invalid:
- The trust does not meet legal requirements
- The trust instrument is forged, and the alleged grantor did not write it or sign it
- The grantor was suffering from dementia when he or she wrote the trust instrument and did not understand what he or she was doing
- The trust is a matter of undue influence, and someone deceived or coerced the grantor into signing the trust instrument
Requests for Declarative Relief
A beneficiary or trustee can file a request for declarative relief when the trustees and beneficiaries disagree in their interpretations of the trust instrument. Declarative relief is when the court issues a ruling providing a legally binding interpretation.
Breach of Trust Lawsuits
The trustee of a trust has a fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of the beneficiaries of the trust, in ways specified and unspecified in the trust instrument. If the trustee does not follow the instructions in the trust instrument or otherwise recklessly or intentionally exposes the beneficiaries to financial harm, the beneficiaries have the right to file a breach of trust lawsuit against the trustee.
Contact David Toback About Trust Litigation
A Central Florida estate planning lawyer can help you resolve disputes arising from trusts and draft dispute-proof trust instruments. Contact David Toback in Tampa, Florida to set up a consultation.
Source:
leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=0700-0799/0736/Sections/0736.0201.html
