Litigation attorney Mike Long successfully handled a case in which a trust account was grossly mishandled upon the death of the client’s father by the client’s former stepmother.
Background of the Case
The client’s ex-stepmother held the role of trustee for the trust fund while also being a beneficiary alongside the client and the client’s mentally handicapped sister.
The trust account (made up of cash, property, and securities assets) had been designated in the will of the client’s father to provide income interest to the beneficiaries and end with the beneficiaries’ children.
The ex-stepmother, a former paralegal and holding the power of attorney at the end of the father’s life, moved $200,000 out of the trust account and changed the contents of his will the week he died from a terminal illness. The real estate assets, being primarily untouched swampland, held little value compared to the cash and securities assets of the trust account.
The ex-stepmother attempted to cherry-pick her third of the trust account, taking only cash assets and leaving the lesser-valued assets to the client and her sister.
Outcome
Through negotiation, inspection, and deposition of the ex-stepmother’s actions, Long was able to get the client, her children, and her sister $700,000 in cash and make the ex-stepmother repay the money she unlawfully took out the week of the father’s death.
Why Contact A Lawyer?
The lesson from this case revolves around the perspective of your attorney.
The ex-stepmother’s transactional attorneys were focused solely on correcting the books and getting everything in order, while BrewerLong went beyond that to see just how much the client could get out of a resolution.
Had the case gone to trial, the most tangible impact would be the correction of the father’s will to remove the ex-stepmother’s changes. Through tactful negotiations, Long improved the results for all parties.
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