Overview
Probate disputes, which often involve family members, are by their very nature highly sensitive and complex and always emotional. Often, the litigation is the final chapter in a novel of family disharmony.
Pullman & Comley’s Probate Litigation practice includes members of our Litigation and Trusts and Estates practices, all of whom have extensive experience in contested probate and tax matters. This team approach combines the talents of both disciplines to join technical estate tax and administration knowledge with comprehensive experience in probate, state and federal trial and appellate courts to resolve our clients’ problems in or out of court.
We represent individual and institutional executors, trustees, conservators, guardians, attorneys-in-fact, charitable organizations and creditors, as well as heirs and beneficiaries in contested matters in the probate, state and federal courts.
We handle a wide spectrum of probate and tax controversies, including:
- Will contests
- Interference with rights of inheritance
- Creditor disputes
- Claims by and against fiduciaries: fiduciary misconduct/removal/surcharge actions
- Accounting actions
- Power of attorney abuse
- Trust and Will construction and reformation
- International and multi-jurisdictional estate and trust disputes
- Conservatorships
- Guardianships
- Appeals of probate and tax matters
In a recent matter, we represented the daughter of their deceased father, who, decades earlier, had established a trust of which they were the successor beneficiaries. The trustees failed, however, to invest the assets in a prudent manner at the same time they charged excessive fees. We recovered a substantial recovery for our clients in mediation after litigation.