Here is what Jack Brandt said:
A poorly drafted trust with an unusual stipulation nearly resulted in Jack Brandt losing his inheritance.
Riverside County police officer Jack Brandt and his three ...sisters were appointed co-trustees of their parent’s trust, with the understanding that each sibling would receive equal shares of the trust upon their parent’s deaths. However, after both parents passed away, Jack’s sisters relied on an unusual provision that appeared to allow for a majority rule for control of what happened inside the trust, thus shutting Jack out of every step of the process as a result. Upon recommendations from other attorneys, Jack contracted Scott Grossman for help.
When Jack’s sisters projected an unrealistic sales price for their parent’s primary residence in a declining market, Mr. Grossman filed a petition with the probate court to force the sale of the property at auction and allow for equal distribution of all of the estate’s property.
The judge subsequently ordered mediation prior to scheduling a trial date. By the time mediation took place, comps on the home indicated an $86,000 difference between the sister’s projected sales price and the actual value of the home.
Mediation took place and the parties successfully came to an agreement. The mediation agreement included the estate being responsible for paying Jack’s attorney fees and costs, as well as the parent’s residence being sold at auction providing Jack his equal share of the estate. A change in the trust’s majority rule provision was also agreed upon, resulting in all co-trustees receiving equal control of the trust.
As a police officer, Jack Brandt spent a great deal of time working with attorneys throughout his career, but found Scott Grossman to be a cut above the rest.
Litigation
Leona Doris Lusk Trust
Dec 17, 2008
OUTCOME: Trust and will set aside
Here is what Terry Lusk had to say:
For many years, everyone knew it was the intention of Leona Lusk to split her estate in equal shares among her four children, Terry Lusk’s father being one of the...m. However, Terry’s father died before Leona resulting in Terry and his siblings now being the benefactors of his father’s share of the estate. Picture their surprise when they learned after their grandmother’s death that a new estate plan was in place with a new sole beneficiary.
Further investigation exposed disturbing details. “She really took advantage of our grandmother - stole money from her and changed the Trust to make her the sole beneficiary,” said Terry. Based upon the evidence at hand, it appeared that Leona’s daughter had coerced Leona into creating a new estate plan, even attempting to obtain the deed to her property.
Terry’s family, being fully convinced of wrong doing, knew they had to hire an attorney to fight for their share of the inheritance. After being referred to Scott Grossman by another attorney, Terry and his family were pleased to find Scott not only came with an excellent reputation but also was willing to work on a contingency basis. Initially four siblings were involved, but only Terry and his brother chose to move forward and challenge Leona’s new estate plan.
It was discovered that prior to her death, Leona had been diagnosed with dementia. Around that time, a neighbor became increasingly more involved in Leona’s life and began taking care of most of Leona’s day-to-day affairs. After a fall at home, Leona was taken to the hospital for treatment where she was diagnosed with dementia. However, the diagnosis was a bit uncertain – one stating she had mid-stage dementia and another stating late-stage dementia.
Leona’s daughter, who lived locally, also become more involved in her mother’s life during this time and began taking on a more active role in Leona’s financial affairs – signing all the hospital documents and paying the hospital bills with Leona’s money. Less than a month later, she even went as far as to have Leona sign a Quit Claim Deed in an attempt to transfer Leona’s property over to her. Fortunately, the deed did was not recorded due to an error at the Registar’s office.
It was at that time that Leona and her daughter met with an estate-planning attorney, where Leona requested that a new estate plan be drafted leaving everything to her daughter. However, her daughter failed to tell the attorney that Leona had been diagnosed with dementia, or of the existence of another estate plan.
During the trial, the new estate-planning attorney claimed Leona was fine and although she acknowledged the existence of the previous plan, could not recall the name of the attorney who had drafted the document. Unfortunately, he did not question the situation or investigate further. In addition, just one month after the new estate plan had been drafted Leona’s primary physician noticed symptoms of dementia and began prescribing anti-dementia medication. He too had not been informed of the hospital’s dementia diagnosis. However, during the trial stated he was not surprised Leona had been diagnosed.
Scott just did a great job. He was very professional, very prepared and he essentially won the case for us. Scott stayed on his game the whole time and did a great job managing the family situation, which was probably harder than the actual case.
“When we got to trial it was actually embarrassing for this other attorney,” said Terry. “Scott had all this stuff pulled together. Scott did all the work. He was really prepared. The other attorney didn’t do any of the work. He thought we didn’t have a case. But It was still a little bit of a crap shoot whether or not we would win,” said Terry. “But in the end the Judge ruled in our favor.”
