What Happened
Inheriting what’s rightfully yours isn’t always automatic. To protect your inheritance, proactive legal action may be necessary, as it was in this case.
Keystone represented a daughter whose inheritance from the portion of the family trust that had become irrevocable at the death of her father was under threat due to gross mismanagement of the trust by her mother, the trustee. The trustee was failing to equally meet her fiduciary obligations to both the trust beneficiaries, acting exclusively for the benefit of her son and to the detriment of her daughter, our client.
How Keystone Was Able to Help
Our client faced strong resistance from her mother and brother, both of whom stonewalled her with respect to providing basic information about the administration of the trust in order to enrich themselves. In response, Keystone filed a petition to, among other things, compel our client’s mother, the trustee, to provide trust information and a trust accounting.
The court quickly granted the petition, ordering that the trustee file an accounting for the portion of the family trust at issue for a six-year period beginning with the date of the father’s death. The trustee also was ordered to produce additional information in more than two dozen different categories. Upon reviewing the information provided pursuant to the court order, it became clear that substantial breaches of trust not only were occurring but would continue to occur if left unchecked.
As a result, Keystone filed another petition with the court to, among other things: (1) determine breach of trust; (2) surcharge the trustee for breach of trust; and (3) suspend and remove the trustee. We also sought an award of costs and attorney fees, along with compensatory and punitive damages against our client’s mother and brother.
Less than a year later, after substantial discovery and several mediation sessions with a retired probate judge, the parties agreed to settle their disputes. Reaching a settlement in this matter was particularly complex, given the nature of the family assets, which consisted of vast real estate holdings, trucking fleets and substantial oil interests — all of which required valuation by experts in order for the parties to meaningfully negotiate.
The settlement, which was subsequently approved by the court in which the litigation was pending, provided for a new irrevocable trust to be set up for the benefit of our client in which a substantial sum would be placed for her exclusive benefit.
The parties also released one another from all disputes, thereby concluding litigation.
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