co-trustee administration

In In re Ruff Mgmt. Trust, the settlor and primary beneficiary sought and obtained a modification of a trust regarding who could name a successor trustee. No. 05-19-01505-CV, 2020 Tex. App. LEXIS 9467 (Tex. App.—Dallas December 3, 2020, no pet. history). The trust document provided that the settlor and her son would name a successor trustee. If they did not do so, then the settlor’s children would automatically be named co-trustees. The settlor had previously had a very contentious arbitration dispute with her son, and sought to modify the trust to have it state that she could, by herself, name a successor trustee. After the trial court granted that relief, the settlor’s other children (other than the son) appealed that decision. The court of appeals affirmed the modification, not because there was evidence to support it, but because the modification allegedly did not affect the appealing children’s rights.

David F. Johnson presented his paper on “Trustees’ Ability to Retain and Compensate Attorneys in Texas” to the Texas Bar Association’s Fiduciary Litigation Course on December 10, 2020. This presentation discussed a trustee’s authority to retain counsel, suggestions regarding engagement letters, attorney/client communication issues, inadvertent attorney/client relationships, co-trustee administration of