Trust, estate and inheritance disputes

We advised the nominated representative of the former employees of the architectural practice of the late Dame Zaha Hadid in the bitter dispute over the administration of her estate. The executors and trustees of the estate sought the Court's blessing to pass significant assets to an Employee Benefit Trust. The Court accepted submission made on behalf of the former employees that the decision should not be blessed.

Following the Madoff scandal we advised the investment arm of a bank trustee with numerous Central and Latin American settlors / beneficiaries who had exposure to Madoff.

An unreported case centered on a civil compensation claim by the US Department of Justice and resulted in the freezing of assets in Jersey which were held by a Nevis trustee. Proceedings were issued in Jersey and Nevis.

A Protector misrepresented to Swiss trustees that the primary beneficiaries had agreed that very substantial trust assets should be appointed out to a secondary beneficiary (a close relative of his) on the basis that he would provide for the primary beneficiaries. Later the primary beneficiaries requested the trustees for help. Withers advised the trustees on taking steps to set aside the transfer to him. 

We undertake contested accounting proceedings to challenge or defend tax issues, investment policies or accounting procedures employed during the management of an estate or trust

We act in fiduciary removal proceedings to remove or defend against the removal of an executor, trustee, agent, guardian or conservator as a result of wrongdoing, misconduct or inability or incompetence to serve.

Represented the designated beneficiary of a retirement account and obtained summary judgment defeating the claim of an adverse party seeking a portion of the retirement account.

Represented heirs to the fortune from a pharmaceutical company in a dispute concerning control of the family office and competing claims of breach of fiduciary duty. After completing all pre-trial discovery and motion practice, Withers successfully negotiated a settlement for the heirs without the need for a costly and public trial in California state court.

Represented a trust beneficiary who obtained a million dollar judgment and an award of attorney’s fees against a trustee who breached her fiduciary duties in the administration of a family trust.

We are defending a Cyprus-based trustee who faces beneficiary claims of USD$150 million in the British Virgin Islands Commercial Court.

We are advising in a dispute over the ownership of over 300 paintings worth approximately £13 million belonging to a company owned by a family trust. One of the beneficiaries of the trust, who had been custodian of the art, sold a number of works to auction houses as security for loans and we are currently negotiating the return of the remaining artworks. The works of art include paintings by Picasso, Renoir and Matisse.

Withers represented one of the heirs to a publishing fortune in a case arising out of a dispute with his children over the administration of various family trusts. Withers successfully resolved the dispute through alternative dispute resolution in California avoiding a costly court battle and prolonged family discord.

Advising Swiss trustees and a Swiss bank on the recovery of assets relating to unravelling an appointment upon the discovery of a fraud on a family trust and on the assets in the estate of the deceased settler in the sum of approximately £400m.

We acted for the beneficiaries of two trusts in this ground-breaking application under newly-enacted Bermuda law provisions dealing with mistakes by trustees and other power-holders in relation to trusts. Despite the application being contested by the UK tax authority it was successful and the adverse consequences that the trusts had suffered were unwound.

We acted for the son of a deceased German businessman who was entitled to a share of a cross-border estate worth in excess of £35m. The case raised complex conflict of law issues over the deceased's Will and arguments from some of the heirs that the son had no entitlement. We co-ordinated simultaneous proceedings in England and Germany and the case was ultimately settled out of court.

We acted in one of the largest will contests in the New York Surrogate's Court, on behalf of a Canadian museum. Multiple and conflicting wills were presented to the court, and the parties alleged incapacity, undue influence and legal malpractice. However we were able to negotiate a reformation of the will, including a favorable settlement for our client, which was accepted by the Court.

This Californian arbitration case, Marlene McCoy et al v US Bank, related to a family trust. The trust beneficiaries had made claims against the trust and sought to prevent our client, as trustee, from paying its own legal costs out of trust funds. Our San Diego team argued that the beneficiaries' demands were unreasonable and their order was denied on appeal.

Our lawyers brought the highest value Inheritance Act claim to date in Wooldridge v Wooldridge (2016). We were acting for a widow who sought to increase provision under her husband’s will after his death in a helicopter accident. The will had been “homemade”, written without legal advice, and our client felt that her husband had intended to leave her a greater share of his assets.

In collaboration with our family law experts, we advised in this high profile and complex divorce case which may be seen as the apogee of the English divorce jurisdiction's robust attitude towards offshore trusts. It marked the widening gap between the trust industry on the one hand and the family division on the other as to the respect to be accorded to trusts, and it remains a seminal case in this field today.

Acting for the adult beneficiaries in the matter of the K Trust with local advocates. The Guernsey Royal Court sanctioned removing a protector for the first time (following similar principles established in Jersey, where we acted, in the matter of the A Trust and the B Trust).

An eminent physicist, Michael Crowley-Milling who made English and Swiss wills bequeathed our client the Royal Society “all my assets in the United Kingdom”. The technical definition of United Kingdom excluded almost £1 million in bank accounts in the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. We successfully argued that the scientific genius had made a geographical error and had also intended to give these assets to the charity.