Trust Litigation in Fort Worth

Most trust disputes start when the trustee stops giving information. The statements stop coming, or a one-page summary arrives that explains nothing, while money keeps moving. By the time a beneficiary calls us, the question usually isn’t what the trust says. It is how to make the trustee produce the records, and which court will order it.

• Compelling an accounting
• Removing a trustee
• Judicial modification
• Self-dealing and commingling
• Testamentary trusts
• Trust and estate in one court

One court for the trust and the estate

Property Code Section 115.001(a) gives district courts exclusive jurisdiction over trust proceedings, but subsection (d) makes an exception for jurisdiction the law gives a statutory probate court. Estates Code Section 32.006 gives statutory probate courts jurisdiction over actions by or against a trustee and actions involving a trust. As a result, in Tarrant County a trust dispute and the estate dispute connected to it can often be heard by the same probate judge.

Tarrant County has two statutory probate courts, Probate Court No. 1 in Room 260A and Probate Court No. 2 in Room 150, both at 100 West Weatherford Street. Parker, Wise, Johnson and Hood counties don’t have a statutory probate court, so there the trust case and the estate case may end up in different courts.

Having one judge hear both cases doesn’t predict the outcome. It does mean you present the same bank records and witnesses once instead of twice.

Tex. Prop. Code § 115.001(a), (d); Tex. Est. Code §§ 32.006, 32.007; Tex. Gov’t Code § 25.2221(c).

Making the trustee account

Property Code Section 113.151 lets a beneficiary demand a written accounting from the trustee. If the trustee doesn’t deliver it within 90 days, the beneficiary can sue to compel it. Ask for the accounting first, because the response is evidence either way. A complete accounting backed by statements may answer your concerns. No accounting, or a summary with nothing behind it, is strong support for a removal case.

Tex. Prop. Code § 113.151.

Removal comes after the accounting

Many people call wanting the trustee removed right away. Removal is a court decision made on evidence, so the usual order is to demand the accounting, review it, and then ask for the relief the records support.

Replacing a trustee only changes who manages the trust going forward. It doesn’t recover money that has already left the trust. That requires a separate claim for breach of fiduciary duty, which in Tarrant County can be heard alongside the family’s other probate litigation.

Changing a trust

Under Property Code Section 112.054, a court can modify, reform or terminate a trust on petition of a trustee or beneficiary, on grounds listed in the statute. A judge makes that decision. An agreement among most of the beneficiaries doesn’t change the trust by itself.

Decide early whether modification is the remedy you need, or whether the real dispute is about the trustee’s conduct.

Tex. Prop. Code § 112.054.

Tarrant County local rules that affect trust cases

• Rule 1.03(a). Once an estate is filed in a court, everything related to it, including later proceedings on a testamentary trust, stays in that court under the same cause number. A trust dispute that comes up years after the estate closed can go back to the same court.
• Rule 2.01(a). The court will refer a case to mediation or another form of alternative dispute resolution on its own motion or by agreement.
• Rule 2.04(b). A motion won’t be set for hearing unless the lawyer certifies that a conference was held with opposing counsel and they couldn’t agree. Probate Court No. 1’s policies say this rule is strictly enforced.

Work we don’t take

We don’t draft or restate trusts or do estate planning. If you need a trust written or updated, an estate planning lawyer will do it better and for less. We handle disputes after the trust exists and the people involved no longer agree.