Our Fiduciary, Trust & Estate Litigation Practice Group represents fiduciaries and the beneficiaries they serve when an estate, trust, guardianship, or conservatorship becomes contested. On the fiduciary side, our clients are bank trust departments, trust companies, personal representatives, trustees, guardians, and conservators. On the beneficiary side, they are heirs, individual beneficiaries, and charities. We handle these matters in the state and federal courts of Alabama and Florida and the appeals that follow.
Fiduciary Litigation for Bank Trust Departments, Trust Companies, and Professional Fiduciaries
For bank trust departments, trust companies, and professional fiduciaries, we defend claims by beneficiaries over investment decisions, discretionary distributions, fees, and accountings, and we handle the petitions for instructions, approvals of accountings, modifications and terminations, and successor appointments that arise in the ordinary course of administration. We represent sureties on fiduciary bonds in claims arising from a fiduciary’s administration, and we work with the firm’s Banking & Financial Services group when a matter reaches a bank’s lending or regulatory side.
Our work for corporate fiduciaries begins before a lawsuit is filed. We assess a trust department’s exposure on a troubled account, respond to a beneficiary’s demand for information or an accounting, and advise on whether to resign, seek court approval, or defend the administration as it stands. When a claim is filed, we defend it in whichever court it lands. Because these disputes often turn on real estate, closely held businesses, lending, and tax, we draw on the firm’s lawyers in those areas.
Probate and Trust Litigation for Individuals and Families
For individuals and families, we bring and defend will contests, trust disputes, and other probate litigation, including claims that a personal representative, trustee, or agent under a power of attorney has breached a duty, and we handle the accountings, removals, and distribution disputes that follow a death. Several of our lawyers also practice in the firm’s Estate Planning & Wealth Preservation group and serve by court appointment as conservators, guardians, trustees, and administrators, and that experience with how estate plans are drafted and administered informs how we evaluate and try these cases.
Many of these disputes turn on what happened before a death: a will or trust changed late in life, transfers made under a power of attorney, joint and payable-on-death accounts, beneficiary designations, and deeds. Others arise during the administration, when a beneficiary cannot get information or an accounting, when distributions are delayed, or when a personal representative or trustee is accused of favoring one family member over another.
Representing Charitable Beneficiaries
A charity named in a will or trust often learns of the gift late, may have to establish its standing, and may find that the restrictions on the gift no longer fit the organization or the times.
We have represented national charitable organizations, colleges, and universities in enforcing bequests and charitable trusts, obtaining accountings from fiduciaries, and resolving disputes over restricted gifts and the modification of charitable trusts.
Guardianship and Conservatorship Litigation
Guardianship and conservatorship litigation is a substantial part of the practice. We handle contested appointments and removals, incapacity determinations, objections to accountings, and claims against guardians, conservators, and their bonds, and we advise families when a power of attorney or trust would serve better than a court proceeding.
In Alabama, a conservator manages the property of a protected person and a guardian makes personal and medical decisions; in Florida, a guardian of the property and a guardian of the person fill the same roles. We represent family members seeking or opposing an appointment, the person alleged to be incapacitated, and appointed guardians and conservators on the inventories, accountings, and bond questions that draw objections, and we seek emergency and temporary appointments when a person or an account needs protection before a final hearing.
Matters We Handle
- Will contests, including undue influence, duress, fraud, and lack of capacity
- Trust construction, reformation, modification, and termination
- Breach of fiduciary duty, accounting, and removal actions
- Defense of personal representatives, trustees, guardians, and conservators, including objections to accountings and compensation disputes
- Contested guardianship and conservatorship proceedings
- Disputes among heirs and beneficiaries over the distribution of estate and trust assets
- Intestate estates and disputed heirship
- Heirs’ property disputes, including partition, sale for division, and quiet title actions among co-owners of inherited land
- Creditor claims against estates
- Disputes over real estate and closely held business interests claimed by an estate or trust
- Appeals in the state and federal appellate courts of Alabama and Florida
Fiduciary Litigation Lawyers in Alabama and Florida
Our fiduciary litigation lawyers practice from Birmingham, Mobile, Fairhope, and Athens, Alabama, and Destin, Panama City, and Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. For estate planning and probate administration, see our Alabama and Florida pages.
