A recent ruling by a Florida Appeals Court has recognized a breach of trust in a case that involved a trustee ignoring the settlor’s written instructions on trust administration that were given before her death. Even though trust formalities were not followed when Lola Kritchman wrote a letter to her co-trustees instructing them to pay for the final two year’s of college for Hunter Wolk, the grandson of her first cousin, the court found that the trustees decision to discontinue tuition payments after Kritchman’s death was not good faith or prudent trust administration.
In Kritchman v. Wolk, the court held that the failure to follow Kritchman’s instructions constituted a breach of trust and that the tuition payments should have been made.
See Jeffrey Skatoff, Trustee of Revocable Trust Sued for Failure to Follow Written Instructions, Clark Skatoff, Oct. 2, 2014.
