Removal of Trustee

Did you know that the court is eligible to remove anyone serving in a fiduciary duty who has breached that duty? Much like an executor or an agent under a power of attorney, if you can illustrate that a trustee has not acted in the best interests of the trust beneficiaries, this person can be removed. You will need a Philadelphia removal of trustee lawyer to help you.

A Philadelphia removal of trustee attorney is your advocate for the duration of the process and can help speed things up significantly. The court has the discretion to remove a fiduciary like a trustee when it has been shown that the trustee has taken action that is counter to the beneficiary's best interests, thereby breaching their fiduciary duty. It is your responsibility as the person bringing forward this claim to have appropriate evidence to present to the court in order to convince a judge to remove a trustee. Judges will only remove trustees if they hear the proper evidence. You have to provide the judge necessary evidence in the form of testimony and documents.

This requires expert witnesses, depositions, witness interviews, subpoenaed documents as well as evidence that was gathered and presented according to the rules of procedure. You need a knowledgeable trustee removal lawyer in Philadelphia to help you with this. During this complex process, any mistakes must be avoided and encouraging judges to remove trustees should be a primary focus of your lawyer when you hire him or her. Judges take removal of a trustee very seriously and will only consider your evidence and choose to move forward with removal actions if your team has adhered to the right procedures.

Trustees are allowed to take trust funds to defend themselves, which is one thing to keep in mind if you choose to bring forward a lawsuit. If you do not have an experienced attorney on your side, the fiduciary might use procedural steps to lengthen the process and to increase the cost, thereby, further draining the trust.

There are many different reasons why trustee could ultimately be removed from the case, including abuse of discretion, failing to comply with the terms of the trust, not cooperating with a critical party, mismanaging trust assets, disputes between co-trustees, hostility towards beneficiaries of the trust, incapacity of the trustee, excessive trustee expenses, trustee being under undue influence, and a conflict of interest. If you think that the trustee has already done something requiring removal, you need to hire an estate litigation lawyer to petition for that fiduciary's removal. If the wrongful act has caused damage to the trust, a formal account might be required in order to figure out where the funds went.

During the formal accounting process, your lawyer can get an order that allows for discovery to learn further details about what went wrong, which can help your case. If the interested person's satisfaction is not reached by the trustee's response to the formal accounting, then a hearing is scheduled. All of the evidence collected during the discovery process can be used to show that the trustee should be removed. It is not always easy to understand this process and to realize what you need to do to protect your best interests. Retaining an attorney who understands this area of the law is crucial.