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Trusts & Estates Litigation

Trusts and estates litigation takes many forms. Disputes may arise involving an estate plan or the administration of a trust, probate, or conservatorship estate. Often, the disputes are deeply personal in nature as they may involve the death or decline of family members or loved ones. Our dedicated team of Trusts and Estates litigators understands the multi-faceted layers of complexity of these disputes and assists with a full range of trust and probate controversies.

These disputes often require specialized knowledge and expertise of the Probate Code and Probate Court procedures. Our trusts and estates litigators assist clients with a wide variety of disputes, including, but not limited to:

  • elder financial abuse claims
  • contested conservatorships
  • defense and initiation of will and trust contests
  • interpretation disputes concerning complex estate planning documents (including reformation of instruments and modification or termination of trusts)
  • disputes over ownership of assets in which an estate, trust, or conservatorship may have an interest (including contracts to make will claims)
  • accounting, financial, and tax disputes
  • removal or appointment of fiduciaries
  • fee disputes
  • administration issues
  • community property disputes
  • breach of fiduciary duty claims

Within this category of services, we represent a broad spectrum of clients, including individual and corporate fiduciaries, in their capacities as trustees, personal representatives, special administrators, conservators, and guardians. We also represent beneficiaries, creditors, and other interested persons in trust, probate, conservatorship, and elder financial abuse matters.

  • Successfully enforcing an oral contract by a parent to leave the parent’s estate to a child in exchange for a significant personal benefit given by the child to the parent during the parent’s lifetime.
  • Recovering funds improperly transferred after the first spouse’s death by the surviving spouse from a trust created by both spouses during their joint lifetimes.
  • Obtaining a judgment against a child who obtained loans against a parent’s real property assets using a power of attorney and then expended the funds received for the child’s own benefit.

WT Wins: Daniel C. Kim Prevails for Trustee Client

Weintraub shareholder Daniel C. Kim prevailed in a 2-day trial before the Yolo County Superior Court relating to his trustee-client’s petition to sell trust property. The Respondent, one of the trust settlors’ five children, refused to vacate the 54-acre mixed-use property at issue, demanding that the trustee agree to a…

Bringing Down the Hammer – California Appellate Court Upholds $1,000 Per Day Sanction For Failure To Timely File Accounting

by Carlena L. Tapella
Trusts & Estates Legal Updates

As trusts and estates litigation counsel, we often have matters where a fiduciary, either as a trustee, conservator, personal representative, or agent under a power of attorney, fails to provide financial information when properly requested, or to provide an accounting if one is required under law.  The result is that…