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Course Details

Course Information
  • smart_display Format

    On-Demand

  • signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level

  • work Practice Area

    Estate Planning

Date & Time
  • event Date

    Thursday, February 27, 2020

  • schedule Time

    1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT

  • timer Program Length

    90 minutes

Credit Information

  • This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.

$297.00

This CLE course will guide estate planning counsel on minimizing and defending breach of fiduciary duty claims when administering trusts and estates. The experienced panelists will discuss the most contentious breach of duty claims and effective defenses and techniques to reduce the possibility of a lawsuit.

Faculty

Dibble Melissa
Shareholder
Archer & Greiner

Ms. Dibble concentrates her practice in the area of Estate and Trust Litigation in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. She handles all varieties of probate, general equity, and Orphans’ Court matters, including, but not limited to accountings, will contests, breach of fiduciary duty actions, trust modifications, and matters involving the Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act and the Slayer Statute. She has represented a variety of institutions and individuals, including banks, universities, executors, trustees, beneficiaries of estates and trusts, and intestate heirs.

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Fallon Martin
Shareholder
Maslon LLP

Mr. Fallon is a partner in the firm's Litigation Group and has experience in the areas of commercial litigation, contract disputes, construction litigation, shareholder disputes, unfair competition, and real estate litigation. He represents businesses and individuals in complex commercial disputes in federal and state courts and in arbitration hearings. Mr. Fallon is a frequent speaker on trust and estate disputes.

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Grasso Angelo
Shareholder
Greenfield Stein & Senior, LLP

Mr. Grasso specializes in trusts and estates related litigation. He has been involved in numerous Surrogate’s and New York Supreme Court proceedings and trials in myriad areas related to estates, including defending and probating wills, objections to accountings, recovering assets wrongfully withheld from trusts and estates, and removing fiduciaries. He has served as lead counsel on trials before the Surrogate’s and Supreme Court and on appeals to the Appellate Division.

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Description

Estate planning counsel must be prepared to handle the complexities of fiduciary litigation now more than ever. Fiduciary scrutiny is increasing due to an aging population, a sense of entitlement by beneficiaries, and a thriving economy. Beneficiaries are filing suits for actions they perceive to be against their best interests or in opposition to settlors' intentions. Lawsuits also allege fiduciaries are ill-equipped to handle the administration of complex estates and trusts.

Some individuals are subject to liability exposure, including trustees being held responsible for the actions of other trustees, employers, and managers of fiduciaries, or principals who have outsourced fiduciary responsibility to an agent.

Adverse outcomes from fiduciary litigation can cause a great deal of harm to financial professionals, institutional fiduciaries, and wealth management companies. Thus, counsel must be prepared to implement best practices to minimize exposure from the beginning, leverage defense techniques, and curtail harsh financial penalties and removal.

Listen as our distinguished panel reviews litigation techniques for defending trustees, executors, and administrators in fiduciary litigation. The panelists will discuss actions for breach of fiduciary duty within the estate and trust context, current defenses available, and how to minimize penalties in the worst-case scenario. Finally, the panelists will review techniques to mitigate exposure to breach of duty claims.

Outline

  1. Causes of action for breach of fiduciary duty
    • Mishandling of trust and estate assets
    • Failure to fund and make distributions
    • Tax offenses
  2. Defenses
    • Waivers/exculpatory clauses
    • Family investment exception
    • Standing
    • Bifurcated fiduciaries
    • In terrorem clauses
  3. Remedies
  4. Risk management/preventive planning

Benefits

The panel will review these and other key issues:

  • What are the causes of action for alleged breach of fiduciary duty?
  • What defense techniques should be used to combat allegations of violation of breach of fiduciary duty?
  • When a breach is found, and how can fiduciaries curtail harsh penalties?
  • What preventive planning should be implemented to avoid claims of breach of fiduciary duty?