Adam Gaslowitz presented a speech entitled “Will Contest, Probate, and Fiduciary Litigation Trends: A Bird’s Eye View” at the ALI-ABA recent Advanced Estate Planning Techniques seminar in San Francisco.  Lecturing to an audience of attorneys, practitioners and advisors from around the nation, Adam spoke about his observations, experiences, and predictions about the changing landscape of fiduciary litigation and litigation regarding the transfer of wealth.

Among these changes is the increased litigation resulting from pre-death (lifetime or “inter vivos”) transfers of wealth through both malicious and mistaken intent, guardianship disputes, and the rise of new actions such as pre-death will contests or pre-death probate proceedings.  Adam also discussed the prevalence of litigation arising from fiduciaries who abuse their authority while acting as the manager of a partnership, a trustee, an executor, an attorney-in-fact, or a guardian.  Finally, Adam discussed the expanding rights now being given in certain states and in certain situations to non-clients to sue estate planning attorneys for malpractice relating to a client’s estate plan.

The outline of his speech was published in the October 2011 edition of the ALI-ABA Estate Planning Course Materials Journal and can be found here.