A Florida estate planning attorney will have to pay back his fees collected for estate administration services and cannot discharge the debt in bankruptcy due to his actions constituting breach of fiduciary duty, according to a Federal district court in Florida. The attorney became co-trustee of his deceased client’s trust, and then entered a fee agreement to perform administrative duties for the estate and trust as an attorney. The fee agreement stated that he would charge a fee according to the Florida Probate Code and the Florida Trust Code, but no specified amount or method of calculation.
In West v. Chrisman, the court held that even though the fees listed in the Florida statutes are presumably reasonable, the ambiguity of the fee agreement made it unenforceable and the attorney’s representation to his co-trustee that the statutory fees were required was a breach of fiduciary duty.
See Jeffrey Skatoff, Attorney Fee Computed Under Probate Code Schedule = Breach of Fiduciary Duty, Clark Skatoff, Nov. 5, 2014.
