Florida Probate Blog

A Trustee’s Duty to Inform and Account Under the Florida Law The essence of the trustee’s existence is to keep a trust’s beneficiaries adequately informed.  Florida probate practitioners, trust lawyers, and estate attorneys all recognize the reality that virtually all fiduciary litigation commences with a beneficiary not receiving a proper trust accounting or explanation of the trustee’s conduct.  The Florida Trust Code provides that a trustee has a duty to keep the “qualified beneficiaries” of an irrevocable trust reasonably informed of the trust and its administration.  Florida law also holds that while a trustee owes no duties to a contingent beneficiary, once the trust becomes irrevocable at the death of the settler, the beneficiary may sue for breach of a duty that the trustee owed to the settlor/beneficiary which was breached during the lifetime of the settlor and subsequently affects the interest of the vested beneficiary.  This general principle was […]

Can a Trust Exist Where the Beneficiaries’ Interest Are Contingent on Surviving the Settlor or Other Events? This interesting question was raised not only discussions leading up to the drafting of the Third Restatement of Trusts, but also in recent case law. For example, in Hoggan v. Hoggan, 169 P.3d 750, 588 Utah Adv. Rep. 24, 2007 UT 78 (2007) the Court was presented with the following: The Eleventh Hour Amendment Shortly before she passed away, Leona Hoggan amended a trust that she had created some fifteen years earlier. The amendment provided that, upon Loena’s death, her son John would be forgiven a loan Leona had made to him, rather than receiving a one-third interest in the trust property.