Trustee Fee Dispute

A Philadelphia trustee fee dispute lawyer will be the person who files the paperwork to request a formal accounting when you suspect that a trustee has mismanaged his or her payments to themselves as part of the fee structure of managing an estate or a trust itself. There is no doubt that being a trustee is a complicated job and one that has numerous different facets. This means that it can be all too easy for someone to anticipate that excessive fees have been charged when in reality, the complicated circumstances of the trust indicate otherwise. Trustee fees in Pennsylvania depend on numerous different factors.

Since it is a time-consuming job to serve as a trustee, a formal accounting might help to reveal what the trustee has actually done. Depending on the type of trust that is included, serving as a trustee could be a full-time commitment. Typical Pennsylvania trustee fees are flat rate per year, hourly or a combination of both. The principal who established the initial trust is usually responsible for setting the terms of the trustee's payments. If the trust has not yet been drafted then the grantor can expressly state what type of compensation the trustee is eligible to receive. More often than not, the trust terms include that the trustee should receive reasonable compensation. This gives a great deal of flexibility which is why most trustees and trust attorneys prefer this term. A probate dispute, however, is always possible when a person is accused of violating the fiduciary duty responsibilities in a legal claim.

A trustee could be compensated more for extraordinary work. Reasonable is also the factor that the court will apply when determining that no compensation was specified in the trust document. If you believe that a person has exceeded reasonable compensation and has carried out unnecessary hourly work in order to maximize his or her fee without considering the best interests of the beneficiaries involved, you need a formal accounting of the trustee's time. You should be prepared that anyone who is accused of mismanaging time or charging excessive trustee fees, likely has their own evidence indicating how much of their efforts they have expended on working through the trust and might argue that you do not have a clear understanding of what is involved in managing a trust like this. The support of a Philadelphia trustee fee dispute attorney is instrumental when building your case against such a person and being able to recover compensation on your behalf of financial harm.

When a trustee allegedly charges too much in a case, then the beneficiaries can file a lawsuit and hold that person responsible. Most people who step into the role of trustee or executor must understand they could be on the line for personal liability. That’s why approaching the details is so important.

A trustee fee dispute lawyer in Philadelphia will explain to you what it means when someone has reasonable fees and whether or not the circumstances of your individual case show that the person has gone above and beyond what they should have provided in this traditional role. Since there is a great deal of flexibility built into most trusts, it can be extremely difficult to bring forward a trustee fee dispute, but evidence indicating that the person did not do the tasks that he or she was assigned to do, or that they otherwise breached their fiduciary duty, could be used to pursue a lawsuit against that person and compel a formal accounting.