Sneaky Half-Brother

Mother had a daughter and no assets when she married her second husband. Together they purchased a house, had a Son, and raised both the kids–although Daughter was 8 years older than Son. Several years later husband died, leaving everything to Mother. Mother became infirm. Son secretly took Mother to an attorney to prepare a trust naming him as the sole beneficiary of all her assets. At the time, Daughter lived with and took care of Mother, but she had no knowledge of the trust. After Mother died, Son locked Daughter out of the house and rejected all contact.

Daughter retained our firm to help her recover an inheritance. We filed a petition to challenging the trust based on undue influence, lack of capacity, duress, mistake and fraud. We immediately hired an expert to conduct a retrospective evaluation of Mother’s mental status at the time she executed the trust and deposed the drafting attorney. As a result of our quick, aggressive and decisive actions, Son quickly agreed to settlement awarding Daughter fifty percent of Mother’s assets.