Trust Litigation

Simeone & Raynor is at the forefront of trust litigation throughout the State of New Jersey servicing all counties including but not limited to Camden, Burlington, Ocean, Cape May, Atlantic, Gloucester, Salem and Middlesex. In addition to appearing in Courts throughout the State, our firm routinely represents clients who reside in all parts of the United States, including Hawaii, Texas, California and even from other countries. Those clients have trusted our firm to advance, protect and pursue their interests in estates and trusts being administered in the State of New Jersey.

Further, our attorneys are experienced and knowledgeable in assessing and addressing even the most complex litigation matters arising from trust administration, trust interpretation and trust challenges. We pride ourselves on effectively and efficiently moving any litigation, involving a trust, towards a positive resolution for our clients by using comprehensive discovery demands and subpoenas to reveal and obtain all pertinent information to our client’s case. We know the law and use it to our client’s advantage.

Recently New Jersey has adopted the Uniform Trust Code which establishes a more comprehensive framework in order to assess the propriety of actions taken by trustees and in some case provide for greater protection to trustees. This statute imposes upon the trustee a duty of disclosure, a duty of loyalty, a duty of prudent administration and a duty of impartiality. The statute permits a trustee to limit the timeframe when a suit may be commenced against them, in certain circumstances, where a trustee advises the beneficiary in a report that they only have six months to file suit. This statute also limits the timeframe, under certain circumstances, as to when an individual may challenge the validity of a trust, to six months.

Because of the limited time to challenge the validity of a trust or a report or accounting provided by a trustee it is imperative that a beneficiary contact a qualified attorney to assess their rights at all stages during the administration process. Our firm and its attorneys routinely handle matters such as:

  1. Challenging the validity of a trust based upon undue influence or lack of capacity;
  2. Pursuing litigation for reformation of a trust or to conform the document with the intent of the grantor;
  3. Interpreting trusts and the clauses and words which may impact a beneficiaries’ rights or interests;
  4. Reviewing accountings, reports and other disclosures provided by trustees as well as compelling those disclosures where necessary;
  5. Monitoring the estate process to ensure our clients receive the property and/or the distributions to which they are entitled;
  6. Reviewing and assessing the propriety of a trustee’s investment and management of trust funds in light of the Principal and Income Act;
  7. Compelling compliance with the trust’s terms and compelling distributions where necessary; and
  8. Instituting suit for breach of fiduciary duty, conversion and for the appointment of a new or successor trustee.

Each trust matter is unique and depends upon a variety of factors such as the trust document, the trustee’s actions, and the law, our firm will review and discuss these factors with you in order to approach the matter in the most effective and cost efficient manner. Sometimes a letter will suffice and yet other times the case may require our firm to bring to bear decades of experience and knowledge to aggressively pursue or defend a trust litigation matter. Our attorneys will provide you with the advice and guidance you can trust throughout all stages of any litigation so that you can feel confident your interests are being advanced. For more information regarding the services our firm offers with regard to trust administration or litigation, please feel free to contact our firm at (856) 663-6700.