Jury Awards $65.5 Million Against Estate Planners and Trustees

A jury in Kerrville, Texas awarded $65.5 million in damages for breach of fiduciary duties with respect to work done in relationship to the estate plan of still-living widow which was created after her husband’s death.

The crux of the suit was an assertion that several well-known lawyers conspired with the officers of a bank’s trust department to have the widow agree to an estate plan which benefited a foundation headed by one of the lawyers.  The widow’s counsel claimed that she (actually, her agent)  was not fully informed of the ramifications of the estate plan.

The lawyers and fiduciaries involved plan to appeal.