Breach of Fiduciary Duty Lawyer in Michigan
When someone accepts a role like trustee, personal representative, guardian, or conservator, they take on legal responsibilities and duties to act in the best interest of others. Some fiduciaries make mistakes that are serious enough to cause real financial harm. Some fiduciaries fulfill their duties correctly, but beneficiaries, heirs, or wards may not feel that way.
Attorneys at Head Murphy Law in the Detroit area work with families and fiduciaries across Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties who are dealing with trust, estate, probate, and other types of disputes. No matter which side of the table you are on, it is helpful to discuss your situation with a skilled and experienced lawyer who will explain your options and protect your rights.
A fiduciary is a person or institution given legal authority and responsibility to manage property or decisions on behalf of someone else. Executors, also called personal representatives of estates, and trustees of trusts are fiduciaries, meaning they have a legal duty to act in the best interests of the estate and beneficiaries. Trustees carry similar obligations. Trustees manage and invest trust assets and make distributions in accordance with the terms of a trust, and they must also keep meticulous accounting records.
Conservators and guardians are also fiduciaries. They are given duties (based on their role) to act in the best interests of wards who are unable to make their own decisions or manage their own financial affairs. Guardians generally handle personal and medical matters; conservators generally manage financial affairs. Guardians and conservators are granted power and authority by the Probate Court and are required to report to the court on a regular basis.
Fiduciary duties in Michigan are not optional or symbolic. State law treats fiduciary obligations as some of the highest standards of conduct a person can owe another party, whether the relationship arises from a will, a trust document, or a court appointment.
Most disagreements involving fiduciaries do not rise to the level of misconduct. A fiduciary who makes a reasonable, good faith decision that a beneficiary simply dislikes has probably not broken the law. But when a fiduciary acts dishonestly, negligently, or in a way that damages the holdings of an estate or a ward under their care, several legal paths may be available.
Options can include:
Once a probate court has found that an executor breached their fiduciary duty, the court may halt or reverse an executor’s actions, remove the executor, or order the executor to compensate the estate for its losses. The right approach taken by probate litigation lawyers depends heavily on the facts, the size of the estate, and how urgent the situation is.
Beneficiaries and heirs who suspect wrongdoing often want answers quickly and worry that delay will make recovery harder. Fiduciaries, on the other hand, sometimes find themselves accused of misconduct simply for carrying out a will or trust exactly as written, which can feel unfair and stressful even when the accusations have no real basis. In either situation, our trust dispute lawyers can help.
Filing for removal generally means presenting specific evidence, not just a general sense that things feel wrong. Courts can remove executors who fail to perform their duties properly. This remedy is particularly appropriate when removal serves the estate’s best interests or the executor is incapable of performing, has mismanaged the estate, or has failed to perform a required duty. Grounds for removal often include repeated failure to communicate, mismanagement of assets, self-dealing, or an inability to carry out the role due to incapacity or conflict of interest.
When an executor is removed, the court may appoint a successor to complete the estate administration, which may be another person named in the will, a family member, or a fiduciary from a specialized law firm depending on the circumstances. The selection is important for ensuring proper estate administration going forward. In some cases, families propose a neutral professional fiduciary to avoid reigniting old conflicts, particularly in blended families or situations where several siblings disagree about who should take over.
Removal is not always the goal. Sometimes a beneficiary hires an attorney simply to secure better communication or obtain a court order compelling the fiduciary to provide an accounting.
When a fiduciary’s actions cause financial harm, whether through carelessness or intentional wrongdoing, the fiduciary can be held personally liable for losses, including reimbursing an estate for misappropriated funds, lost investment opportunities, or other financial harm. Personal liability can mean the fiduciary’s own assets, not the estate’s assets, may be at risk if a court finds a breach occurred.
A surcharge claim is one of the main tools used to recover losses due to breaches of fiduciary duties. Calculating the right surcharge amount often requires guidance from an experienced law firm, especially when the loss involves a missed investment opportunity or a property that lost value due to neglect.
Timing can be a key aspect of a claim. The longer mismanaged assets sit unaddressed, whether that is a rental property near Eastern Market falling into disrepair or an investment account left unmonitored, the harder it can become to reconstruct records and calculate an accurate loss. Waiting to act rarely helps, and it can sometimes make an otherwise strong claim more difficult to prove.
Breach of fiduciary duty claims can take many forms. Common issues include:
Some of these issues stem from genuine confusion about the role rather than bad intentions. Others, unfortunately, reflect a deliberate pattern. Either way, beneficiaries in the Detroit area generally have a right to raise concerns and ask a court to look closely at how an estate or trust has been handled.
Not every accusation reflects true misconduct. Family tension, unmet expectations about inheritances, or simple misunderstanding of the will, trust terms or fiduciary duties can lead a person to assume the worst. Some may want control of a deceased loved one’s assets and may resent the fact that another person was chosen for the role. Resentment does not make an accusation true, but it does mean fiduciaries should take even weak claims seriously and respond with documentation rather than defensiveness.
A strong defense often relies on the same records a fiduciary should already be keeping:
Exculpatory clauses may limit fiduciary liability for unintentional errors, offering protection from breach of fiduciary duty claims. Some trusts also include accounting release provisions that can limit a beneficiary’s ability to raise objections after a certain point has passed, though whether these provisions apply depends heavily on the specific document and the facts of the case, requiring careful evaluation by a probate law office.
Once an action has been filed by a local law office, a probate court sitting in Wayne, Oakland, or Macomb counties will look closely at whether the fiduciary’s conduct, taken as a whole, met the standard the law requires, not just whether one decision turned out poorly in hindsight.
If you are concerned about how a trustee, executor, personal representative, or conservator is handling a loved one’s estate, or if you have been accused of breaching your fiduciary duties, contact Head Murphy Law before the situation escalates further.
Every fiduciary dispute is different. Some can be resolved through a straightforward request for records or a candid conversation between family members. Others require filing a formal petition, gathering financial documentation, and preparing for a hearing. A missed accounting deadline, an unexplained distribution, or miscommunication can turn into litigation quickly. Meanwhile, estate assets can lose value, accounts can be depleted, and trust between family members can break down entirely.
We can help. Call today for an honest assessment of your situation. We will help you make the best decision for your issue.
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