Debt lawsuits — a byproduct of America’s medical debt crisis — can ensnare not only patients but also those who help sick and older people be admitted to nursing homes, a KHN-NPR investigation finds.
Category: Lawsuits (Page 2 of 3)
Beverley Schottenstein said two grandsons who managed her money at JPMorgan forged documents, ran up commissions with inappropriate trading and made her miss tens of millions of dollars in gains. So she decided to teach them all a lesson.
Source: At 93, She Waged War on JPMorgan and Two Financial Advisors—Her Grandsons – Bloomberg
The Georgia Supreme Court has suspended a state appeals judge with pay during an ethics investigation.
The court suspended the judge, Christian Coomer, on Wednesday, Law360 reports.Coomer is accused of making himself a beneficiary and his wife the executor when drafting wills for a then-client, according to Law.com, Law360 and the Daily Tribune News.
Coomer is also accused of drafting an irrevocable living trust for the client that designated Coomer as the trustee and beneficiary, with the power to transfer funds to himself while the client was still alive, according to the Dec. 28 charges by the Georgia Judicial Qualifications Commission.
In this episode of the case files, I discuss the Texas case of Ramirez vs. Rodriguez, et. al., a case that involves four sibling co-trustees and the attempt by three of them to remove their trouble-making brother because of his hostile actions. Is being a royal pain in the derriere enough to remove a trustee from office.
This case reminds me of a scene from an episode of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, an Amazon original series that I have featured in the video.
Both this case and the scene from the series drive home the point that sometimes mixing family and money can be an explosive combination.
Choose your trustees carefully!
It is common practice for professionals to refer clients to one another. Clients often don’t want to shop around for someone when a professional they are already working with knows another professional to whom they can refer. Many avoid referring a single professional, preferring instead to provide 3-4 references that the client can contact on their own.
A Hartford CT firm specializing in elder law is facing a malpractice lawsuit from a client who claims it referred her to financial advisor, Thomas Renison, who stole some $400,000 from her over the course of a decade. Apparently, the law firm also received a referral fee from Renison.
The complaint states the firm knew or should have known about Renison’s “dangerous” history. Renison was barred by the SEC in 2014 but resurfaced through a 3rd party LLC and is now facing charges of “allegedly using the LLC to defraud seniors of $6 million between 2015 and 2018.”
It’s always the bad apple that spoils the bunch.
The Law Firm of Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, recently published the trial court results of a case involving a charge of Undue Influence brought by the two adult children of William Moriarty.
Mr. Moriarty was widowed in April 2016. William had been diagnosed with depression, anxiety and congestive heart failure following Doreen’s death. Eve, who had been married three times previously and had met William while Doreen was alive, began dating him within weeks after Doreen’s death.
Afterward, Cathy and Paula noticed a marked change in their relationship with their father, though they did not learn of his and Eve’s relationship until soon before they were married. Eve and William married about seven months after Doreen’s death, and neither Cathy nor Paula were invited to, or attended, the wedding.
From firing William’s caregiver to procuring a new will for him through her own lawyer, Eve also was named as joint owner of a new, large home purchase shortly after their marriage, as well as of a new $60,000 Lexus.
Relying on an expert witness, the court determined that William’s physical and psychological impairments made him vulnerable to undue influence.
The trial court was convinced that Eve exercised undue influence over William due to multiple facts presented at trial, including the dramatic shift in his estate plan only one month before his death and Eve’s involvement in procuring his will and surrendering his life insurance policy. The trial court was less than impressed with Eve’s demeanor in court, noting her “flat affect during emotional testimony,” which left the court “with no confidence that Eve married William because she loved him and with the conclusion that Eve planned to take all of William’s money all along.”
Ultimately, the trial court declared that the purported will was invalid due to William’s lack of capacity and Eve’s undue influence over him, and it ordered that William’s estate be distributed as if he had died intestate.
The court also ordered Eve to transfer title of bank accounts, the house and the car — all of which she otherwise would have received as a joint owner — to William’s estate.
When a family member has died, it can add insult to injury to learn that you were cut out of the will. Contesting the will is likely an initial thought. We talked to people who have filed will contests, and came up with the top 5 reasons I regret filing a will contest. The reasons are:
- I was not honest about my relationship with the decedent.
- A will contest is more stressful than I realized.
- I was not realistic about decedent’s mental and physical condition.
- I did not have a clear idea of what I was fighting over.
- I did not realize how much a will contest would cost.
For a breakdown of each of these five reasons, follow the source below.
Source: 5 Reasons I Regret Filing A Will Contest | Probate Stars
In this episode of The Case Files, I profile a 2010 Texas case involving a daughter’s misappropriation of her deceased father’s trust funds as well as her aging mother’s personal assets. The characters from the 1960s sitcom Green Acres provide a little humor to an otherwise serious situation. Enjoy and learn!
Kerri, Julie and Mike Kasem have asked a judge to dismiss their wrongful death lawsuit against their stepmother, Jean Kasem, 64, as part of a settlement after a four-year legal feud.
While these cases make the headlines due to the celebrity status of the parties and the amount of money involved, dramas like this for much smaller amounts happen all too frequently. Death and money can bring out the worst of family dysfunction.
How can families prevent this kind of outcome? There is no simple answer, and if the dynamics among the family are already toxic, then it’s even more important that families have a solid, written plan in place before incapacity strikes. It may not have prevented the accusations of wrongful death between the parties, but it could have created a structure of care and wealth distribution that could have neutralized or minimized any incentive for the parties to commit a wrongful death offense.
Unfortunately, no estate plan can prevent an immoral or illegal act; nor can it instill character in the lives of others.
Source: Casey Kasem’s children settle their wrongful death case against his wife | Daily Mail Online
In yet another case of family member trustees gone wrong, Former St George Illawarra Dragons star Mark Gasnier has accused his brother of taking funds from a family trust as part of a long-running dispute.
Mark Gasnier and his brother Dean, are co-trustees of a family trust apparently established by their parents. According to the complaint, Dean, without the knowledge of Mark, made a number of withdrawals from the family trust and even went as far as faking the signatures of his parents John Gasnier and Janene Gasnier on financial documents including tax returns. The case is headed to the New South Wales Supreme Court.
Appointing an institutional corporate trustee might have prevented the dispute since corporate trustees typically include layers of checks and balances designed to prevent unauthorized withdrawals from occurring. If families still want someone within or close to the family involved, then appointing them as co-trustee with limited authority is a possible solution.
Perhaps this sibling rivalry should have been left on the Rugby pitch!
Source: Mark Gasnier accuses brother of mismanaging family trust