Trust and Estate Litigation Case Results

After his mother’s and father’s death, our client faced serious allegations from his siblings that would have resulted in complete disinheritance. We defended our client against the allegations and preserved the father’s wishes to leave our client a sizable inheritance.

During her lifetime, a mother gifted her daughter and her son-in-law $400,000 for the purchase of a home. Nearly ten years later and after the mother’s death, a sibling challenged that very gift and alleged our client committed financial elder abuse and sought a $1.2M judgment. We won at trial with a full defense.

An uncle, with no children of his own, established a trust leaving everything to his nephew. In his twilight years his mental capacity slipped and he became subject to a conservator, who happened to be a professional fiduciary. In the subsequent months, the uncle’s trust had been changed to leave the fiduciary $1M and the nephew only $100,000. We filed a trust contest and reached a favorable settlement of $3M for our client.

A gentleman with no spouse or children developed very strong friendships over the years with two couples who lived nearby. They shared life together and they were there for him during his last days. He made a Last Will and Testament gifting his assets to his friends. Upon his death, his estranged siblings contested the will. We quickly amassed nearly a dozen written statements from witnesses describing the closeness of the friendships in comparison to the distance of the siblings. The siblings dismissed their case for a small settlement

An aunt with no children or spouse wanted to give her assets to her niece if her long-time partner did not survive her. However, a younger man who claimed to be assisting the aunt drafted a trust document for the aunt that gave everything to him and if he did not survive her; only then would the trust distribute to the niece. We filed a petition to uphold the trust but eliminate the gift to the man who literally wrote himself into the trust, and it was granted.

A patriarch had built from the ground up a lucrative, international business that profited multi millions annually. In his later years, he entered into his third marriage with a woman 25 years his junior. He had already established a trust that distributed the near entirety to his three children. One of them had become the president of the business. However, in the last five years of his life, while his mental capacity and physical health declined, he made five different amendments to his trust, with each amendment giving more and more to the third wife and less to the children. The final amendment gave everything of monetary value to the third wife and disinherited the children entirely. We were able to obtain a settlement that restored a percentage ownership in the business worth an estimated $10M.

A grandchild took over as trustee for their demented grandmother when her daughter passed away. Another grandchild hired us when he suspected bad action by the trustee. The trustee would not provide any information regarding administration of the trust, or even the whereabouts of the grandmother.

A generous grandmother had established a will gifting a particular piece of property to one of her granddaughters, while also making other generous gifts to her daughter and other family members. The daughter, however, was vindictive and did not think the granddaughter deserved anything. When the grandmother became demented, the daughter had the grandmother sign a deed transferring to the daughter the very house that was specifically gifted to the granddaughter in the grandmother‘s will. Through our litigation efforts, we obtained documented proof that the grandmother knew and represented to others that the grandmother was demented at the time she had the grandmother sign the deed to the house. The settlement we reached required the daughter to transfer not one, but two houses to the granddaughter.