Probate & Trust Law Section Conference Manual ... - Minnesota CLE

3. Isle v. Brady, 288 P.3d 259 (Okla. Civ. App. 2012). Trustee’s fees to
prepare accounting and repair property were proper. One of four trust
beneficiaries was also a trustee, who failed to provide an accounting after
the deaths of the settlors and also permitted rental property to fall into a
state of disrepair. Other three beneficiaries filed a petition to have trustee
removed, at which point an independent successor trustee was appointed.
Successor trustee charged an hourly rate and also incurred other expenses.
Initial trustee objected to fees charged to the trust. The Court considered
the following factors for determining the propriety of the trustee’s fees:
trustee’s skill and expertise, amount and character of trust property, degree
of difficulty, nature and costs of services, and quality of trustee’s
performance. The Court determined that given the time required by the
rental properties and other actions required to prepare the accounting
justified the fees charged.
4. In the Matter of Trust of Trimble, 826 N.W.2d 474 (Iowa 2013).
Trustee was not obligated to account to remainder beneficiaries for
the period in which the trust was revocable and the settlor was
competent. Eight months prior to the death of the settlor, settlor amended
her revocable trust to name trustee as sole trustee. Trustee made verbal
reports to the settlor on the status of the trust and regularly consulted with
her. After settlor’s death, two of eighteen beneficiaries petitioned the
court to require the trustee to account for the period of administration prior
to the settlor’s death. Trustee eventually provided an account, but the
probate court held the trustee personally liable for her attorneys’ fees. The
Court held that while the trust is revocable and the settlor is alive and
competent, the trustee only owes a duty to account to the settlor and that
due to privacy concerns, beneficiaries are not entitled to an accounting
while the trust was revocable. The probate court’s ruling that the trustee
was required to pay her own attorneys’ fees was an abuse of discretion.
I. Procedural Issues in Trust Dispute
1. Estate of Giraldin, 290 P.3d 199 (Cal. 2012). The beneficiaries of a
revocable trust have standing to sue a third party trustee for breaches
of fiduciary duties that occurred during the settlor’s lifetime. In 2002,
a settlor established a revocable family trust naming his son as trustee.
The trust provided for the distribution of net income and discretionary
principal to the settlor during his lifetime, and thereafter for the creation of
a trust for the benefit of the settlor’s wife, with the remainder passing at
her death equally to their nine children (some from previous marriages).
The settlor reserved the right to revoke or amend the trust in writing. The
settlor also executed a will leaving his separate property and his share of
all community property to his trust, with son named as the executor.
Thereafter, the settlor invested $4 million in son’s company through
payments to the company. After the final payment, the company issued
stock to the settlor that he then transferred to his trust. At the time of the
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