Did You Not Notice? Protecting Lawyers and Trustees from Beneficiary Complaints

Hartog, Baer, Zabronsky (HBZ) congratulates Anna Judson, a first-year student at UC Berkeley School of Law, for being the firm’s 2022 Diversity Scholarship recipient.

What questions should an attorney ask before hiring someone to prepare a client’s fiduciary accounting? What are the indicia of a poorly prepared accounting? Are waivers of account ever a good idea? Should the trust document routinely waive accountings?  Ever? Is there anything a trustee’s attorney can do to shorten the statute of limitations on breaches of trust disclosed in an accounting?

The Federal Government assesses a tax on assets that are gratuitously transferred to another person. Assets transferred during the donor's lifetime are subject to gift tax.