Estate Litigation - Misappropriation & Mismanagement
Neufeld Legal P.C. can be reached by telephone at 403-400-4092 or email Chris@NeufeldLegal.com
Misappropriation: When the executor or the trustee is conferred authority over the estate, there is always the potential for misappropriation. For having been conferred with such authority over the estate and the beneficiaries typically being reluctant to criticize and challenge the determination and actions of the executor / trustee, there is always the potential for the unscrupulous or the desperate to take advantage of this particular empowerment.
The testator's estate, however is not their own. They have only been entrusted with its oversight and distribution, and not as a means to personally enrich themselves. As such, when you discern that there might be misappropriation on the part of the executor or the trustee, or should you believe that their prior disposition and actions warrants closer scrutiny, you should take the initiative to prevent against such misappropriation. And with the direction and assistance of knowledgeable legal counsel, you can better discern its occurence and thereupon initiate the appropriate legal action to address the misappropriation.
Mismanagement: As a beneficiary legally entitled to receive your full inheritance, it is entirely unacceptable to not receive the entirety of your inheritance from those charged with delivering it to you. For when the trustee or the executor of the estate fails in their fiduciary duty to protect and fully transfer all the money that they were legally obligated to transfer, there is a very serious problem that needs to be rectified. This is even more egregious where the executor, trustee or administrator is in fact a financial institution or other professional, and thereby has a higher professional and fiduciary obligation as to the inheritance and yourself.
The fact remains that in these situations the executor had but a single overriding obligation and that is to the beneficiaries of the estate, and undertaking any action or benefit for their own personal financial aggrandizement borders on outright criminality. Yet as a beneficiary, your legal recourse is to the civil courts and attempting to effectuate the recovery of money that is rightfully yours. And though this can be a prodigious battle, it is one that needs to be fought for that inheritance is duly owed to yourself and no one else, and most especially not the executor, trustee or administrator who owes a fiduciary and legal duty to yourself to uphold the wishes of the decedent and distribute their estate accordingly.
And all too often the problem is that even though the victims know that there is some impropriety, they fail to realize the depth of the fraud and estate mismanagement. For the deception can be quite pernicious, such that the victimized beneficiaries have been kept in the dark to such a degree that they are incapable of discerning what their inheritance should be and in turn recognize that they are being defraud by those seemingly closest to them and those whom they would not contemplate ever stealing from them.
Contact our law firm today to learn how our legal team can help you deal with inheritance disputes and estate litigation. Contact our law firm at 403-400-4092 or via email at Chris@NeufeldLegal.com to schedule a confidential initial consultation.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This website is designed for general informational purposes. The site is not designed to answer specific questions about your individual situation or entitlement. Do not rely upon the information provided on this website as legal advice in respect of your individual situation nor use it as substitute for individual legal advice. If you want specific legal advice, you need to engage a lawyer under established legal engagement procedures that have been specifically agreed to by that lawyer.