Under Texas law, the law imposes special duties on persons serving as executors, administrators, guardians and trustees, known as “fiduciary duties”. These fiduciary duties include the duty to account for and to fully and accurately disclose the transactions of the estate or trust, the duty of loyalty to the beneficiaries, the duty not to self-deal with the estate or trust assets, the duty to make the estate or trust assets productive, the duty of impartiality between the beneficiaries, and a multitude of other duties.
State law also requires trustees to invest and manage assets as a prudent investor would, to actively review the trust assets and make prudent decisions as to the investments of the trust portfolio, and to appropriately diversify the investments of the trust.
There are a multitude of other statutory duties required of executors, administrators, guardians and trustees, the breach of which creates potential liability for these fiduciaries.
Our litigation team pursues a variety of actions against fiduciaries including:
- suits for removal of executors, administrators, guardians and trustees
- suits to force accountings
- suits for monetary damages
- suits to pay back fiduciary fees
Applicable laws provide for the possibility of recovery of the attorney’s fees incurred in pursuing these breaches of fiduciary duty.
Staubus, Blankenship, Legere and Walker PLLC has substantial experience in vigorously defending executors, administrators, guardians, and trustees from removal actions, in preparing airtight accountings in response to accounting actions, and in suits for damages filed against the fiduciary. We also pursue Declaratory Judgments on behalf of fiduciaries when facing decisions involving risk to the fiduciary in order to cover them with a court order directing what action the fiduciary should take. Applicable Texas law allows the possibility of the fiduciary recovering their attorney’s fees by the fiduciary from the estate, guardianship or trust.
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