The Guide to UNHW Estate & Trust Disputes
Ultra-high-net-worth estates trust disputes are uniquely challenging, given the potential to harm family relationships and the financial uncertainties that can arise when managing such valuable assets. Resolving complex trust and estate litigation disputes requires skilled legal advocacy and a deep sensitivity to the emotional implications of each matter.
If you are a high-net-worth individual involved in an estate or trust dispute, it’s important that you have the support of an attorney who has a strong legal understanding of the nuances involved in resolving estate disputes in and out of the probate courts. At RMO LLP, we understand the deep financial, legal, and emotional complexities of navigating the disputes our high-net-worth clients face, and we provide the detailed resources and comprehensive legal support necessary to move forward.
With decades of experience across a wide range of legal matters affecting UHNW estates, we bring confidence and clarity to beneficiaries, spouses, executors, trustees, creditors and others involved to achieve better outcomes sooner.
UHNW Estate & Trust Disputes | Topics
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Family Office Disputes After Death or Incapacity
UHNW clients with family offices managing their affairs may run into disputes over how assets and estate interests should be managed, ambiguous estate planning documents should be interpreted, or who should assume control over estate decisions. The estate litigation attorneys at RMO LLP can help bring clarity to these disputes, addressing critical legal questions about how assets should be handled and advocating for the best possible outcome within the procedures established by the local probate courts.
Disputes Over Control of Family Businesses and Closely Held Companies
Managing business interests after a person passes away can be particularly challenging, as they are difficult to value and may involve multiple stakeholders, each with their own desired stake in the business. Navigating business succession disputes may require carefully reviewing estate planning documents, understanding state intestacy laws related to illiquid assets and addressing potential disputes through mediation. Our attorneys provide detailed representation throughout each step.
Trustee, Executor, and Fiduciary Misconduct in High-Value Estates
Acts of fiduciary misconduct and breach of fiduciary duty pose serious risks to high-net-worth estates, especially when fiduciaries mismanage expensive assets or engage in nefarious acts such as self-dealing. Irresponsible management of assets could result in a significant reduction of the value of assets or financial losses to the estate, with UHNW estates facing a particularly high risk. It’s important for beneficiaries and interested parties to remain informed about their rights and what important signs to look out for.
Removing or Replacing Trustees in Complex Trust Disputes
Beneficiaries have the right to remove a trustee who has acted with misconduct or failed to uphold their responsibilities to act in the best interests of the trust, to ensure the trust is administered in accordance with the decedent’s wishes. This process may depend on any terms specified in the trust as well as the laws set out in state probate codes. The attorneys at RMO LLP are prepared to support clients in these matters to help trustees understand their rights and the options available to them.
Trust Accountings and Financial Transparency in UHNW Trusts
In trusts involving high-value assets, it’s crucial that you have full transparency around how these assets are handled and managed. Beneficiaries have a right to demand trust and estate accountings, and it is a fiduciary’s obligation to provide them upon request. The attorneys at RMO LLP are a valuable resource for helping you understand and exercise your rights to ensure that you can access UHNW trust accountings and have a complete picture of how assets are being managed.
Our Awards
Valuation Disputes Involving Businesses, Real Estate, Art, and Complex Assets
In cases involving complex, high-value assets such as business interests, investment accounts, cryptocurrency, art, and similar forms of property, interested parties may disagree over how these assets should be valued and the shares of the inheritance they will receive. Navigating the valuation of complex assets requires consulting a skilled appraiser, clarifying inheritance shares based on a careful review of any existing estate planning documents and possibly resolving disputes through mediation.
Undue Influence, Capacity, and Late-Life Estate Plan Changes
Credible concerns of undue influence or fraud in the creation or alteration of a trust or estate planning document may provide interested parties with valid grounds to contest a will or trust. High-value estates are often especially susceptible to undue influence and fraud, as interested parties may attempt to take advantage of a vulnerable individual to access their expensive assets. Our attorneys represent interested parties in pursuing legal action if they suspect that a bad actor is jeopardizing their loved one’s interests.
Blended Family and Second-Spouse Estate Disputes
Divorces and second marriages can create sensitive family disagreements as there may be past renditions of estate planning documents or conflicting interests in who should receive a share of specific assets, which may call the distribution of an inheritance into question or invoke dynasty trust litigation. Our UHNW trust litigation attorneys at RMO LLP have considerable experience in estate matters involving blended families to help you understand the implications of omitted spouses, pretermitted heirs, spousal inheritance rights and more.
Disputes Involving Powers of Attorney, Conservatorships, and Financial Elder Abuse
In UHNW estates, it is unfortunately not uncommon for bad actors to attempt to take advantage of vulnerable elders for personal gain through arrangements like power of attorney appointments, conservatorships, or caretaking relationships. Interested parties may contest arrangements like a conservatorship or a power of attorney if they believe a bad actor is using their position of authority to exhibit financial elder abuse. Our attorneys assist interested parties in these UHNW trust disputes in upholding their rights and protecting their loved one’s legacy.
Privacy, Reputation, and Confidentiality in High-Profile Estate Litigation
When filing for litigation, key details about the case and the family estates involved are made public. Maintaining privacy in UHNW estate disputes is an important concern, especially for families with substantial assets who don’t want their personal business exposed to the world. Whether it’s the option to create a trust or to resolve disputes outside of the courtroom through mediation, RMO LLP will help you understand your options for preserving your privacy and resolving disputes without disclosing vulnerable personal matters.
Multi-State and Cross-Border Trust and Estate Disputes
UHNW estates frequently involve a substantial number of assets that exist across state and international borders. It’s important to have an experienced attorney who understands how to navigate probate across multiple jurisdictions and has a strong professional network of international attorneys and financial experts. The attorneys at RMO LLP have considerable experience in estate and probate disputes that extend across multiple jurisdictions and maintain global reach to advocate for clients in the most difficult of UHNW estate disputes.
As Seen On
Our Case Results
RMO has a proven track record of protecting people and defending legacies.
Trust Amendment Invalidated for Undue Influence
After trial, awarded a seven-figure judgment, plus attorney’s fees and costs on behalf of the elderly niece of the decedent, where auntie’s neighbor/caregiver used undue influence to connive her way into becoming the primary beneficiary of her trust shortly before she passed.
Defended Trustee Against Breach of Fiduciary Duty for Imprudent Investments
Defended the successor trustee of a family trust against claims from his brother that he had breached his fiduciary duty to invest trust assets prudently when a concentrated commodity position he amassed lost essentially all its value swiftly. The probate court denied the charge on evidence presented by RMO that the trust’s broad investment powers and the deceased settlor’s speculative investment meant that the investment loss could not constitute a breach.
Recovered Stolen Trust Property + Double Damages and Attorney’s Fees
Representing the successor professional fiduciary trustee, secured a seven-figure probate court judgment, plus double damages, attorney’s fees and costs in recovering real property that had been transferred and stolen by an unscrupulous trust beneficiary.
Recovered Grandma’s Stolen Home
On behalf of the granddaughter administrator of grandma’s probate estate, secured a judgment against grandma’s daughter and son-in-law to recover title to grandma’s home and monies wrongfully withdrawn against the property.
Remedied Dependent Adult Financial Abuse
Secured the intestate probate estate of our clients, the rightful heirs of their cousin’s estate, who had fallen prey to an ex-con drug dealer “friend” who had coerced the cousin to sign will documents while dying in his hospital bed.
Rectified Financial Elder Abuse by Thieving Neighbor, With Double Damages
Representing the institutional successor trustee of a family trust, obtained a financial elder abuse judgment against a neighbor “friend” abuser who had taken significant sums of money from an elderly man just months before he died, including double damages interest, attorney’s fees and costs.
Secured Family’s Business Legacy
Representing the successor family trustee, secured the generational family business for the decedent’s heirs by acquiring from a disgruntled beneficiary their interest in the family business on extremely favorable terms that will allow the family to continue operating the family business for future generations to come.
Defended Financial Elder Abuse Claim Against Surviving Spouse Trustee
Successfully defended a surviving spouse trustee against financial elder abuse and other claims made by family members who said she had fraudulently transferred assets to herself from her late husband’s trust and estate.
Prevented Trustee Removal for Badly-Lawyered Trust Accounting
Staved off suspension, removal and surcharge for a trustee who had failed to properly or timely provide court-ordered trust accountings to trust beneficiaries and was staring down an imminent deadline, as well as suspension, removal and surcharge.
Removed Trustee for Fraud
Neutralized and secured removal of a hostile co-trustee who was attempting to bilk our client’s trust of millions of dollars through a series of fabricated claims.
Removed and Surcharged Thieving Trustee
Secured removal of a thieving co-trustee daughter whose malfeasance left her own mother destitute and unable to pay her bills, including recovery of the stolen assets, attorney fees and costs.
Defended Sub-Trust Allocations
Client’s mother survived step-dad and succeeded him as trustee of their family trust. After mom passed, step-dad’s children alleged she had improperly allocated trust assets to favor her survivor’s trust, which went to our client, over the marital trust, which went to step-dad’s children. Using historic appraisals and valuations, demonstrated the disputed allocation was reasonable, resolving the dispute.
Mom’s House and Legacy Saved from Foreclosure
Prevented foreclosure of mom’s house – the estate’s only significant asset – by securing ex parte appointment as Special Administrator and then obtaining a temporary restraining order preventing the home’s foreclosure so the property could be sold, securing mom’s legacy for her children and grandchildren.
Family Jewels Recovered
On behalf of a professional fiduciary, convinced the probate court to award our client double damages, attorney’s fees and costs in addition to recovery of significant personal property wrongfully taken from – and refused to be returned to – the estate.
Fair Inheritance Secured for Beneficiary, Preventing Exploitation of Family Trust in $1 Million+ Estate
Secured a fair inheritance for our client by striking down frivolous charges for a $244,000 caregiving fee and $100,000 trustee compensation fee from a trustee taking advantage of the estate through determined litigation and negotiation.
Saving the Family Farm
Helped family members recover ownership of the multi-million dollar family farm that had been transferred out of an irrevocable trust improperly by an unscrupulous trustee through the fraudulent use of a decanting statute.
Estate Administrator’s Fraudulent Probate Accounting Revealed
Represented decedent’s children in a contested probate accounting over various expenses the administrator attempted to charge against the estate, and then further successfully obtained an order from the court shifting a portion of the client’s fees and cost to several unrepresented heirs through a “common fund” theory of fee recovery.
“Death Bed” Trust Amendment Thwarted
Within weeks, secured evidence sufficient to convince the surviving step-parent perpetrator of a “death bed” trust amendment that disinherited our client to abandon the amendment and pay our client his high seven-figure inheritance.
Holographic Trust Amendment Neutered
Secured summary judgment on behalf of a trust beneficiary where the trustee claimed a holographic trust amendment halved our client’s inheritance, resulting in our client receiving her full inheritance and the trust paying her attorney’s fees and costs.
Invalidated Assignment of Elder Beneficiary’s Interest
Secured an elderly client’s rightful inheritance from her brother’s estate, invalidating the ill-gotten assignment the brother’s widow and her attorney had secured from her using subterfuge and without advising her to seek her own counsel.
$20 Million Trust Saved For Surviving Spouse
Secured a final, global resolution that affirmed our clients’ homestead rights, recovered $50,000 in attorney’s fees, and brought a resignation from trustees who mismanaged trust property.
Third Time’s The Charm – Eight Figure Trust Saved for Surviving Spouse
Represented the surviving spouse of her deceased husband’s high eight-figure trust estate, which, through some ill-advised estate planning, had left the client as a co-fiduciary with her estranged stepson and a bungling property manager. Prior litigation with previous counsel resulted only in our client’s resignation, which allowed the bunglers to further waste trust assets. Secured a final, global resolution for the surviving spouse that secured the resignations of the “bad” trustees and replaced them with an institutional trustee who is working to remedy their bad acts and save the estate.
Secured Long Overdue Child Support from Deadbeat Dad’s Estate
Represented former spouse in collecting long-unpaid child support through creditor’s claim procedure from her ex-husband’s estate.
Secured Retirement Benefits for Surviving Spouse
Represented the surviving spouse in successfully defending her status as beneficiary of her deceased husband’s retirement benefits against contest by the decedent’s former wife and children, who had claimed lack of capacity and undue influence.
Disposed of Interloping Ex-Spouse’s Trust Contest
Represented the surviving spouse trustee of her deceased husband’s trust against a trust contest on the grounds of incapacity and undue influence by the husband’s first wife – and his children from that marriage – all of whom had been disinherited by the decedent. Deployed tried and true probate litigation tactics to put the interlopers to task, which resulted in the court dismissing their claims, saving significant time and money.
$900,000 Estate Protected with Guardianship in Protection of Elder
Prevented exploitation of our clients’ vulnerable father at the hands of their brother by obtaining a permanent guardianship of the person, appointing our client as a guardian, and implementing visitation restrictions to prevent continued influence.
Online Romance Fraud Halted
Established an emergency conservatorship of the estate of a divorcee who had been ensnared by Nigerian fraudsters,who had infiltrated, isolated, defrauded and unduly influenced her into sending them millions, leaving her destitute and unable to buy food.
Conservatee Protected, Financial Advisor Fraudster Barred from Industry
Represented a court-appointed guardian ad litem in securing a prosecution agreement with counsel for the conservator of an institutionalized dementia patient who was taken advantage of financially by her financial advisor, leading to his permanent bar from the financial services industry.
Protected Elder Father from His Own Daughters
On behalf of his wife, established conservatorship of an elderly man over the protests of his daughters, who were his attorneys-in-fact and nominated conservators, living rent-free in his properties, and had repeatedly threatened to withhold caregiving. Secured ex parte suspension of the daughters’ powers of attorney and appointment of a private professional fiduciary to protect dad, which was granted by probate court.
Grandmother Safeguarded
Secured appointment of a private professional fiduciary for grandmother on behalf of grandson, and over the objections of grandson’s aunt, who, along with her husband, had been exploiting grandma financially, securing grandma’s return home and well being.
Guardianships for Kidnapped Parent
In two separate cases, established a guardianship for our client on behalf of their parent after the parent was secretly moved across state lines by our clients’ siblings so the kidnapping sibling could take financial advantage of the parent.
Jurisdiction ≠ Forum Non Convenience
In a published opinion, obtained reversal of a lower court decision confusing jurisdiction with forum non conviens, re-establishing the trust beneficiary’s right to continue prosecuting his fraud, undue influence, and financial elder abuse claims.
Settlement Approved, Confirmed and Enforced
Represented trustee, at trial and on appeal, to enforce a settlement agreement addressing his co-trustee’s a breach of fiduciary duties, after the offending co-trustee fraudulently claimed he had satisfied his obligations under the agreement.
Trust Contest Win Buttressed
Successfully defended trustee and sole beneficiary against trust contest by disinherited heir. Then, when the trial judge erroneously entered judgment creating potential exposure for subsequent litigation, prevailed on appeal to modify the judgment to insulate the trustee from any possible further litigation.
Confirmed Life Insurance Proceeds as Trust Asset
Represented trustee of irrevocable trust in a published appellate decision confirming the trust could be funded properly with life insurance proceeds even though all formalities typically required by the terms of the life insurance policy had not been satisfied.
Refuted Forged Estate Planning Documents
Secured the estate of our client’s late father, who had been victimized by childhood friends who had forged estate planning documents to steal his estate from his family.
Invalidated Fraudulent Property Transfers
Secured return of our client’s home value after her daughter and son-in-law moved into the home under the guise of “helping” her, only to defraud her into signing documents signing her home over to them, after which they forced her out of her home.
Righted Caregiver “Girlfriend’s” Grift
Recovered the home of an infirm, institutionalized senior who had been victimized by his “girlfriend,” an opportunistic volunteer at his care facility, securing his golden years.
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Our probate attorneys handle all types of trust and estate disputes. Whether you’re a trustee, executor, heir, or beneficiary, we can help you resolve your legal matter.