Trust Disputes – What you Need to Know

Life is full of disputes, people have disagreements and that stretches to legal arrangements such as trusts. What can one do if one is involved in a trust and a dispute arises? In this article, we take a look at why conflicts occur and what to do about it.

Potential causes of a trust dispute

Here are some of the reasons why a dispute concerning a trust might arise.

• The trustee does not follow the trust deed.
• The trustee fails to provide trust documents to beneficiaries.
• The trustee improperly used, sold or transferred trust assets.
• Improper exercising of discretions.
• Improper transfer of trust assets.
• Favouring one beneficiary over another.
• Acted in bad faith or bias.
• Engaged in fraud or wrongdoing.

The above are just some of the scenarios that might lead to a trust dispute and the best way forward is to engage the services of experienced trust dispute lawyers who can resolve the dispute with mutual agreement of all concerned parties.

Potential outcomes

There are numerous possible outcomes to a trust dispute, such as:

• The removal and replacement of the trustee; a trustee can be held accountable by personal liability.
• One remedy might be for the trustee to make available trust documents to a beneficiary.
• Sometimes, a court is required to help with the interpretation of a trust deed, which may have occurred and the trustee is willing to accept that mistakes were made.

If you are a trust beneficiary and you feel that the trustee has acted improperly or unfairly, make contact with an Australian trust dispute lawyer and let the legal specialist give you their opinion.

Representation in court

If a dispute cannot be resolved, the case would be heard by a special court and you would be best represented by a leading law firm that handles trust cases. Of course, the lawyer has your best interests at heart and they are dedicated to helping their clients reach a favourable outcome.

To summarise, when a trust beneficiary is dissatisfied with a trustee’s actions, they should engage the services of an established trust dispute lawyer; most are happy to share a short Zoom call to discuss the situation and this can be followed by a virtual consultation.