Bank caught in trust litigation over generation-skipping account

Trusts are big business in Florida, and they help businesses to keep going. Trusts include a broad range of legal and financial instruments that put people or parties in charge of assets on someone else’s behalf. One of their most popular uses is passing on property without having to include it in a last will and testament.

Another specific reason to use a trust is if someone wants to pass a property to someone in the family beyond a child. Sometimes called generation-skipping trust accounts, these instruments can keep a home or other asset reserved for a grandchild upon the owner’s death or another specified time.

A major bank is in the midst of a lawsuit regarding one of these accounts. The adult children of a deceased person who created trusts for them are claiming that the bank illegally helped their mother create a new trust used to capture the contents and appointed a co-trustee with a criminal background related to past theft.

The bank’s lawyer contend there was no wrongdoing in their actions. But the incident shows how banks and other financial institutions may become third parties to complicated litigation over trusts and their contents. It is now not uncommon that trusts designed to protect assets for future generations face challenges from other people and parties who are interested in those assets.

People needing help with trust litigation may enlist the representation of an attorney. A lawyer can help review the specifics of how trusts were set up and figure out the possible consequences of a dispute in court.