A no contest provision in a will or trust is a clause which states that if a beneficiary/heir engages in certain activity he/she is automatically disinherited from the will or trust. More often than not, the activity triggering disinheritance is the filing of a lawsuit challenging the validity of a will or trust (be it…
Legal Articles
Personal Liability of Trustees: Contract & Tort
One of the perks of being a trustee is that the trustee is able to utilize trust assets for expenses to administer the trust. This means, among other things, that a trustee can use trust assets to hire professionals to aid in administration. Similarly, it is quite rare that a trustee is personally responsible for…
Exculpatory Trustee Clauses
Being a trustee is a difficult job. The trustee owes a litany of fiduciary duties to the beneficiaries, but the beneficiaries do not have any similar duties to the trustee. It is a one way street. The job is made all the more difficult depending on the terms of a particular trust instrument. To make…
Trusts: Trustee Duty to Prudently Invest, Duty to Diversify
In investing the assets of a trust in stocks, bonds, securities, etc., a trustee must consider the purposes, terms, distributional requirements, and other circumstances of the trust. Section 456.8-804, RSMo. To this end, the trustee must exercise reasonable, care, skill and caution. Id. When evaluating whether a trustee has properly invested funds, investment decisions are evaluated not…
Trusts: Trustee Duty to Report & Inform
As part of a trustee’s general fiduciary duty, a trustee must keep qualified beneficiaries reasonably informed about the status of the trust and of facts necessary for them to protect their interests. Section 456.8-813, RSMo. Because this is a fuzzy standard and is quite fact intensive, the Missouri Trust Code states that a trustee presumptively…
Interim Trustee Relief
Pending an ultimate request to a remove a trustee, the Court may order interim relief, if warranted (and usually only at the request of a party). Specifically, pursuant to Section 456.10-1001, RSMo, the Court can enter one or more of the following remedies to take effect during the pendency of a case: (1) An order…
Limitations Periods for Breach of Trust
With the adoption of much of the Uniform Trust Code in Missouri, several areas of law trust law and litigation because more clear, including the time limitations periods for a beneficiary to commence an action for breach of trust against a trustee. Many of the limitations periods for claims in Missouri generally are five (5)…
Co-trustees
While it’s much more common to have one trustee in charge of a trust, there are occasions when multiple trustees will serve jointly. From experience, it is often the case that a settlor/grantor (i.e., the person who creates the trust) will appoint co-trustees because the extent of the responsibilities calls for more than one person,…
Trust Standing, Declaratory Relief; Accounting
One of the more complicated aspects of trust litigation is that usually any person who has an interest in the trust — however remote — either must be joined as a necessary party or may file for declaratory relief. With respect to declaratory relief, any person interest in the administration of a trust may file…