John Wick - What You Need To Know about the Corporate Transparency Act
Once Removed Episode 24: Expressing Goals and Intent for the Trust
Once Removed Episode 22: Building Flexibility into the Estate Plan
Once Removed Episode 20: Helping a Beneficiary Purchase a Home
Once Removed Episode 19: The Step-Transaction Doctrine and the Case of Smaldino
Next Generation Legacy Management - The Essence of Developing, Managing and Implementing a Plan for Future Generations
A Primer On Trusts - A Podcast with Janathan Allen
Once Removed Episode 13: It’s 5 o’Clock: Do You Know Where Your Will Is? A Lesson From Aretha Franklin
Charitable Bequests With Guest Stephanie Hood
Once Removed Episode 12: SLATs and the Case of McKim vs. McKim
Once Removed Episode 11: Spousal Lifetime Access Trusts, or SLATs
Digital Planning Podcast Episode: Family Office Technology Solutions
Digital Planning Podcast Episode: The Uniform Electronic Estate Planning Documents Act
What is a self-proving affidavit?
The Importance of Beneficiary Designations
Basics of Estate Planning
The Case of the Disappearing Trust
Protecting Your Estate Plan from Challenges: No-Contest Clause Explained
The Secret Child
Welcome to 'Splitting Heirs'
An incident of the trustee’s duty to be generally prudent, to account (or report) to beneficiaries, and to refrain from breaches of the duty of undivided loyalty, such as engaging in unauthorized self-dealing, is the...more
In In re Trust A & Trust C, a beneficiary sued a trustee for breach of fiduciary duty and sought a constructive trust over assets that were transferred out of the trust. 690 S.W.3d 80 (Tex. 2024)....more
Newcomers to probate litigation are frequently surprised by how differently things work in probate court, as opposed to your more straightforward civil courts. (And how do those newcomers know how civil courts work? Law &...more
Just when trustees are feeling safe to go back into the water after the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal spoke in Zhang Hong Li v. DBS Bank (Hong Kong) Ltd [2019] along comes Ivanishvilli v. Credit Suisse Trust Ltd [2023]...more
In McCoy v. McCoy, trust beneficiaries sued the trustee for breaching his fiduciary duties by pursing claims against a third party when they instructed him not to do so. No. 08-23-00119-CV, 2023 Tex. App. LEXIS 6604 (Tex....more
No, according to In re Estate of Elze D. Harris, Docket No. 362364 (September 28, 2023). In Estate of Harris, the decedent’s three children were embroiled in litigation over who should control their deceased father’s...more
In Moody Nat’l Bank v. Moody, a beneficiary sued a trustee regarding several allegations of breach of fiduciary duty. No. 14-21-00096-CV, 2022 Tex. App. LEXIS 7844 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] October 25, 2022, pet....more
In Ahlgren v. Ahlgren, plaintiffs sued a defendant alleging that the defendant was a trustee of an oral trust who breached duties by refusing to return certain property. No. 13-22-00029-CV, 2023 Tex. App. LEXIS 4182 (Tex....more
In certain circumstances, shareholders of corporations and members of limited liability companies can obtain confidential communications between corporate management and the company’s attorney that would otherwise be...more
In the most recent installment of the McGuireWoods Fiduciary Advisory Services annual multipart series on recent fiduciary cases, developments in the law concerning various topics are examined through the following... ...more
The Texas Supreme Court held that arbitration clauses in trust documents may be enforced regarding claims by beneficiaries against trustees. In Rachal v. Reitz, a beneficiary sued a trustee for failing to provide an...more
Fiduciaries sometimes find themselves in the unenviable position of facing conflict, whether with or among beneficiaries. In this article we offer some tips for preventing and managing conflicts and approaching the...more
In Parseghian v. Frequency Therapeutics, Inc., the Delaware Court of Chancery dismissed a complaint for failure to state a claim as to Count II, which alleged that defendant Lucchino (the CEO of Frequency Therapeutics)...more
In a decision that bodes poorly for unionized employers, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit recently held that a union benefit fund was contractually entitled to conduct an audit whose scope far exceeded the...more
Settlors often place some or all of the ownership in a closely-held business in a trust. A trustee managing a trust with an interest in a closely held business has difficult management issues to address and this often raises...more
On May 2, 2022, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware entered judgment, after a bench trial, for a lender on breach of fiduciary duty claims brought by the litigation trust for the borrower, finding that the...more
In the most recent installment of the McGuireWoods Fiduciary Advisory Services annual multipart series on recent fiduciary cases, developments in the law concerning various topics are examined through the following: ...more
This newsletter is intended to keep readers informed about developments in probate and fiduciary litigation in Massachusetts and New York. Our lawyers are at the forefront of this area of the law, shaping how it is handled in...more
In Ahlgren v. Ahlgren, the plaintiff asserted that the defendant breached fiduciary duties by taking assets held in trust for the plaintiff’s father. No. 13-22-00029-CV, 2022 Tex. App. LEXIS 2843 (Tex. App.—Corpus Christi...more
In McEndree v. Volke, a beneficiary sued a trustee, her former step father, for breaching fiduciary duties. No. 11-19-00351-CV, 2021 Tex. App. LEXIS 7856 (Tex. App.—Eastland September 23, 2021, no pet. history). ...more
A settlement agreement can be beneficial to all parties – it may help reduce litigation costs, facilitate dispute resolution, or guide the parties to a common understanding. However, settlement agreements do not come without...more
David F. Johnson presented “Trustee’s Obligation to Inform Beneficiaries: Avoiding Breach of Fiduciary Duty Claims” to a national audience on November 16, 2021, via Strafford publishing with his co-presenter Scott E. Rahn,...more
In Pense v. Bennett, the ward in a guardianship proceeding sued to invalidate the sale of real property from a trust created for his benefit to an affiliate of the trustee. No. 06-20-00030-CV, 2020 Tex. App. LEXIS 8002 (Tex....more
In Benge v. Thomas, a settlor created a trust and appointed her daughter, Missi, as the trustee. No. 13-18-00619-CV, 2020 Tex. App. LEXIS 6888 (Tex. App.—Corpus Christi August 27, 2020, no pet.)....more
Intentional interference with expected inheritance (IIEI) was recognized as a legal claim in California about eight years ago in Beckwith v. Dahl (2012) 205 Cal.App.4th 1039. Last week, the Court of Appeal issued the first...more