Co-trustees may not terminate a trust due to “defendant’s persistent and repeated requests for documentation and accountings” by the trustees, says a Richmond Circuit Court. Plaintiffs allege these persistent requests cost the trust unnecessary time and expense, including legal fees. ...

Tagged with: Judge Melvin R. Hughes Jr. Richmond Circuit Court Virginia Circuit Courts Wills & Trusts

Plaintiff filed suit naming three defendants: 1) plaintiff’s brother in his capacity as the administrator of their mother’s estate, 2) plaintiff’s brother individually, and 3) plaintiff’s sister-in-law. The case involved the defendant brother/son obtaining funds from his parents’ trusts in ...

Tagged with: Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Brett A. Kassabian Million-Dollar Verdicts Wills & Trusts

Although a party who claims to be the only lineal descendant who can inherit an interest in real estate has presented a certified birth certificate, the Richmond Circuit Court says under Virginia law, the birth certificate is only prima facie ...

Tagged with: Judge Melvin R. Hughes Jr. Richmond Circuit Court Virginia Circuit Courts Wills & Trusts

After another circuit court sustained pleas in bar filed by defendants in this lawsuit, preventing three claims relating to defendant’s representation of plaintiffs of a decedent’s estate from going forward, the Richmond Circuit Court says the current suit is barred ...

Tagged with: Judge Melvin R. Hughes Jr. Richmond Circuit Court Virginia Circuit Courts Wills & Trusts

On a report by the Commissioner of Accounts and review of these seven cases in which a law firm has served in multiple roles, including guardian, conservator and trustee, for incapacitated persons, the Fairfax Circuit Court orders the law firm ...

Tagged with: Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Leslie M. Alden Virginia Circuit Courts Wills & Trusts

Virginia does not recognize same-sex marriages or domestic partnerships, and also does not recognize the validity of same-sex marriages or domestic partnerships entered into in other states. As a result, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) population of Virginia ...

Tagged with: Elder Law Wills & Trusts

You have reviewed your new client’s intake questionnaire. She is an 80-year-old widow with three children, two grandchildren and two great grandchildren. Her net worth, including her mortgage-free home, is about $3.5 million. She has a good government pension as ...

Tagged with: Elder Law Wills & Trusts

A couple’s reciprocal wills providing each testator left the entire estate to the surviving spouse and each testator’s child from a previous marriage would get one-half the estate at the death of the surviving spouse, was not a binding contract ...

Tagged with: Justice Cleo E. Powell Supreme Court of Virginia Wills & Trusts

An investment manager who sued to get his fees from two trusts not only lost his case, he was hit for more than $13 million on a counterclaim. After a six-day trial, an Alexandria jury found plaintiff John R. Erb ...

Tagged with: Alexandria Circuit Court Fraud Million-Dollar Verdicts Wills & Trusts

John R. Erb, the sole shareholder, officer and employee of the Alexandria investment management firm of de Teffé Capital Management, Inc., initiated the action by filing suit for trustee’s and investment management fees totaling approximately $1.5 million allegedly earned and ...

Tagged with: Alexandria Circuit Court Judge Lisa B. Kemler Million-Dollar Verdicts Wills & Trusts