For wealth managers, the relationship with a client’s estate planning attorney is one of collaborative foresight, focused on meticulous drafting, tax efficiency, and smooth administration. However, when a client faces a contentious claim, such as a challenge to a trust’s validity, an allegation of breach of duty against an executor, they need a fiduciary litigator, not a planner.
It’s important to note that these are typically larger cases that often involve a decent amount of assets and complex legal structures. Because of this, an estate planner’s strength in creation is not a substitute for a litigator’s skill in advocacy. The planner is a collaborator, while the litigator is ready to go to battle for the trust or estate. Recognizing this inflection point is the ultimate measure of service a wealth manager provides, ensuring their clients’ legacies are protected by courtroom-ready and battle-tested representation and advocacy.
“The truth is a lot of the larger cases we get are from these situations,” said Craig Frankel, a founding partner of Gaslowitz Frankel. “A lot of wealth managers and advisors come to us when they’re not directly involved in the case but have a high-net-worth client who will need fiduciary litigation in some capacity. A lot of times, it’s the estate planner who makes the recommendation or raises the red flag. This is why having the two operate in harmony is so essential.”
The Role of a Seasoned Fiduciary Litigator for High-Stakes Trust and Estate Disputes
The challenge for the wealth manager, then, is communicating the necessary legal pivot to the client. Most clients assume the attorney who drafted the trust is the best person to defend it.
While understandable, this assumption introduces a significant vulnerability. Litigation demands mastery of discovery, courtroom procedure, forensic analysis, and evidence presentation. These are skills outside the core competency of non-litigation-focused counsel.
The specialized fiduciary litigator for high-stakes trust and estate disputes is called in when the integrity of the client’s plan is being actively attacked. This typically occurs in a few critical scenarios:
- Trust and Will Contests: Disputes over undue influence, capacity, or validity that require presenting medical evidence and conducting aggressive depositions.
- Fiduciary Breach Allegations: Claims against an executor or trustee for mismanagement, self-dealing, or improper distributions that require a deep, specialized defense of fiduciary duties and the ability to comb through accountings with forensic attention to detail.
- Demands for Information: When beneficiaries or minority owners are making aggressive requests that threaten the client’s privacy and administrative stability, a litigator must step in to define and defend the bounds of legal entitlement.
This defense requires an unconflicted, highly focused legal team whose experience is exclusively dedicated to protecting fiduciaries and beneficiaries in these adversarial environments.
“Wealth managers sometimes don’t understand there is a big difference between estate planning and estate litigation. They’re two different disciplines. The vast majority of estate planners can’t litigate. One reason for this is that they will likely be involved as a witness and may have to testify about the client’s capacity or intent during the drafting process, creating a conflict of interest and practical limitations that put them and your client at risk. That’s when they bring us into the mix,” explained Frankel.
Related Article: What Estate Planning Attorneys Seek in Referring to Litigation Firms
The Referral Dynamic: When Planning Counsel Withdraws
The clearest indicator that a fiduciary litigator is required is often when the client’s existing counsel recognizes their own limitations and executes a strategic withdrawal from the matter.
As soon as the existing counsel has reached the limits of their professional experience and training, it is imperative to bring in a fiduciary litigator for high-stakes trust and estate disputes.
“When a trusted estate planner, or perhaps a financial advisor, realizes their client is facing a serious claim, they frequently turn to specialized fiduciary litigators,” said Frankel. “The litigator’s job is to step in seamlessly, providing immediate, powerful defense to the client while respecting the necessary firewall from the referring professional.”
This dynamic confirms that the decision to bring in a litigator is not a reflection of a flaw in the original planning but a necessary escalation of defense to match the severity of the threat.
Related Article: Protecting Client Legacies: When Wealth Managers Face Contested Estates
Protecting Assets Against Plaintiff-Side Aggression
In many high-stakes disputes, the opposing party is a disgruntled family member or beneficiary who lacks the personal financial resources to afford expensive hourly litigation.
These situations are often leveraged by contingency-fee lawyers, including some plaintiffs’ lawyers or even domestic relations attorneys, who are willing to take a risk, knowing the payout may be substantial.
“It’s really important to understand what’s at stake because it’s simple but has huge ramifications,” said Frankel. “These cases usually involve a lot of different kinds of people, whether it’s a spouse who is now in control of a wealth manager’s client’s assets, a child who has been disinherited and is filing a contest, or a child from a previous marriage in a blended family who feels entitled to a larger portion of the estate. We just recently went to trial for a case that had 16 beneficiaries, all of whom disagreed. The unifying factor for each is that they all wanted money. That’s really what’s at stake here: the financial integrity of the estate and the preservation and continuation of the family legacy.”
Related Article: When Family Business Disputes Threaten Wealth: Guidance for Wealth Managers
Get the Strategic Advantage of a Specialized Fiduciary Litigator for High-Stakes Trust and Estate Disputes Your Client and Their Legacy Needs
The fundamental benefit a fiduciary litigator brings to the wealth manager’s client is objectivity. While a wealth manager aims to preserve family harmony, a litigator is focused on one metric: the client’s legal and financial defense. This perspective is vital when navigating the emotional demands of family disputes. The litigator cuts through emotional pleas, resentment, and family history to provide an objective legal assessment of what the claimant is actually entitled to under the governing documents.
The attorneys of Gaslowitz Frankel have years of expertise in handling the complex issues surrounding will, trust, estate, business, and securities disputes. For trusted estate law and fiduciary legal guidance in complex, high-stakes matters, consult with the attorneys of Gaslowitz Frankel. We help wealth managers protect their clients’ wealth.
