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potential conflict of interest

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L

loss_hoot

Guest
What is the name of your state? California
I am one of four siblings, each of us are equal beneficiaries of my father's estate. My sister is the trusee. She has chosen an attorney to assist her with her duties as trustee. The attorney assisting my sister indicated to her in writing that because he also represents my father's surviving partner in a business which is the major assest of our trust, there exists "a potential conflict of interest." I very much want for my sister to hire a different attorney, but it is going to take a strong and logical set of facts in order to convince her. Replies on this subject will be much appreciated.
 


Dandy Don

Senior Member
Why has she chosen this particular attorney, and why doesn't SHE understand the potential conflict of interest? There may not necessarily be a conflict of interest depending on what the trust says about the business--is it to be sold or is it going to continue operating to produce income for the heirs/beneficiaries?
 
L

loss_hoot

Guest
She has decided to use this particular attorney because my father and his business partner have together used this same attorney as their business attorney, he is the same attorney who prepared my father's will and trusts, and my father more or less made it clear that he wanted this particular lawyer involved in the handling of the estate. Despite my father's faith in this lawyer, I have my reasons for not wanting him involved. Firstly, I am a bit of a paranoid when it comes to large decisions being made for me by another person/s and I am kept out of the decision making process. I'll admit that that reason alone doesn't justyify having him replaced. More importantly, this lawyer has proven himself (in my eyes) to hold my father's business partner in higher regard than he does my father. Secondly, I feel that any lawyer {or accountant} would tend to favor a client with whom he will continue to have a working relationship. Also important in my consideration of things is the fact that my father's business partner does not like me. Over the years I have used company credit cards, company cars, (I worked for them for a few years, but I was a flake) and generaly spent quite a bit of their money. My father's business partner does not like me, and he has legitimate reasons not to. He's not going to go out of his way to put extra dollars in my pocket. From what I have written in this post, have I given any reason whatsoever to justify my wanting to replace my sister's lawyer?
 

Dandy Don

Senior Member
Your reasons seem personally justifiable but may not meet the legal requirements of unfitness or bias as trustee. Trustee is going to have to abide by whatever the trust instructs, so there is no reason for the business partner to have any effect on what is done with a trust asset unless he is siphoning off money from the business. Someone would have to look at exactly what the asset is and how it contributes income to the trust to make a final determination.
 

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