Litigation focused on estates and trusts is a rapidly growing area. Each lawyer practicing in the Estate & Trust Litigation Group at Archer concentrates on litigation involving probate matters, estates, trusts, fiduciaries, and guardianships.
Our estate and trust litigation attorneys have represented both institutions and individuals. These institutions include banks, corporate fiduciaries, and investment companies. The individuals include the beneficiaries of estates and trusts, executors, administrators, trustees, surviving spouses, guardians, and incapacitated persons. One of the benefits of our estate litigators is that they work closely with and are supported by the expertise of the Estate Department attorneys and estate administrators in tax and estate administration.
Among our multi-disciplinary services are:
- Attorney advice on the administration of estate and trust matters
- Litigation on the interpretation of Wills, trusts, and beneficiary designations
- Representation in basic Will contests, as well as complex Will contests receiving local, regional, and national media coverage
- Evaluation and litigation of undue influence and incapacity issues
- Assistance to executors and trustees on preventing and handling disputes
- Preparation and presentment of fiduciary accountings
- Assessment of claims by beneficiaries of estates and trusts
- Counsel on investment decisions by executors and trustees
- Counsel on the challenge to or defense of lifetime transfers, gifts, joint accounts, jointly owned property, and beneficiary designations
- Formation and implementation of administrative policies by fiduciaries
- Acceptance of appointments by probate judges as counsel and guardians
- Recovery of costs and counsel fees from estates and trusts
- Service as mediators certified by the New Jersey Supreme Court
- Publishing and lecturing on the local and national levels for private firms as well as for the New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education, the American Law Institute and the American Bar Association.
