[WSBAPT] hadn't seen your follow up post- Re: PRs/TTEEs hiring own children as estate employees

[Andrekita Silva]

Law Office of F. Andrekita Silva
______________________________________________________________

November 6, 2023

Joshua,

I hadn't seen your follow up post.
Unfortunately, deceased wife's heirs don't seem like the self-correcting 
type....


Andrekita Silva
Law Office of F. Andrekita Silva
1325 Fourth Avenue, Suite 940
Seattle, Washington 98101-2509
206-224-8288
ak at seattle-silvalaw.com
www.seattle-silvalaw.com







On 2023-11-06 17:48, Joshua McKarcher wrote:
> Thanks, Phil. The harmed parties are the remaining 50% beneficiaries.
> 
> The four who charged the fees, etc. are related to Wife who died. My
> client and his sister are children of the Husband who died previously.
> 
> 
> My client, the son, did not challenge Wife's sister's petition for
> appointment, even though Husband's will nominated my client as PR of
> Husband's estate.
> 
> "_Huh?_" you fairly ask.
> 
> None of Wife, sister, husband, nor their lawyer ever delivered
> Husband's will to my client, the nominated PR, to (1) ask if he'd like
> to serve because it needed to be probated; or (2) ask him to
> decline/renounce so they could instead.
> 
> Instead, because 40 days had passed, they simply filed a petition for
> appointment.
> 
> Wondering if this was okay, when served the papers, he called my
> office, and I agreed to call the petitioning lawyer. (Silly Josh,
> thinking, "_This is little Clarkston. Surely this is all very simple
> and can be done efficiently and cooperatively. My client tells me he
> doesn't know his stepmother's family well but assumes they're nice
> enough. We don't need three PRs for this little estate. It is already
> ruined at the outset by certifiably horrible documents from a firm two
> hours north that pumps out incomprehensible RLTs to any living
> creature who will attend a seminar and accept that probate is
> Armageddon. Their 'work' has already resulted, for the umpteenth time
> in our small community, in real property in both the trust's and the
> two decedents' names, thus requiring two 'Armageddons' plus a trust
> administration plus a non-judicial TEDRA to resolve bizarre contingent
> rights of the descendants of the first-generation beneficiaries . . .
> of this small of an estate. Why complicate things further?_")
> 
> Alas. First it was that all the tangible personal property was
> "theirs" because "they" said it was. And Husband's truck was "theirs"
> - not his own son's - because their son had "earned it" before Wife's
> death. Fixed that; and, after much wrangling (!), got them to let
> Husband's two adult children into the house one Saturday to see if
> they wanted anything _remaining_ in the house. (Golf clubs were it.
> The son got his dad's truck, and the daughter got her dad's golf
> clubs. The picture of greedy, surely.)
> 
> Now, when we received the final accounting, all four checks to these
> fortunate beneficiaries were already written and cashed.
> 
> Now we are, naturally, the ones said to be holding things up as I try
> to process what I'm looking at.
> 
> I appreciate the perspective about how this plays out in Oregon. I'm
> not even sure I'd expect a substantial (say, over 50%) cut on the
> $15,800; and it would be wrong to argue for $0. As taught by a partner
> I worked for early in my career, I try not to ask for something I
> wouldn't be willing to "accept" myself. Not all were taught the same,
> I realize.
> 
> Thanks for the insight. Best, Josh
> 
> From: wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com
> <wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com> On Behalf Of Philip N. Jones
> Sent: Monday, November 6, 2023 5:53 PM
> To: WSBA Probate & Trust Listserv <wsbapt at lists.wsbarppt.com>
> Subject: Re: [WSBAPT] PRs/TTEEs hiring own children as estate
> employees
> 
> One question, and one comment:
> 
>  	* Who is being harmed here?
> 	* Down here in Oregon, these sorts of situations get objected to in
> the final account, and a hearing is held.  In my experience, judges
> cut such people down substantially, but not down to zero.
> 
> Phil Jones
> 
> Philip N. Jones
> 
> Duffy Kekel LLP
> 
> 900 S.W. Fifth Ave. Suite 2500
> 
> Portland, OR 97204
> 
> pjones at duffykekel.com
> 
> (503) 226-1371 - office
> 
> (503) 853-1482 - cell
> 
> (503) 226-3574 - fax
> 
> From: wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com
> <wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com> On Behalf Of Marsha Hudson
> Sent: Monday, November 6, 2023 4:10 PM
> To: WSBA Probate & Trust Listserv <wsbapt at lists.wsbarppt.com>
> Subject: Re: [WSBAPT] PRs/TTEEs hiring own children as estate
> employees
> 
> Please respond to the list.
> 
> Marsha
> 
> Marsha C. Hudson
> (She/her/hers)
> 
> Attorney at Law #23330
> 
> 3221 NW 62nd Street, Seattle, WA  98107
> 
> Telephone: 206-297-3933
> 
> Fax: 206-357-9356
> marsha at griffyn.us
> 
> _Life's most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing for
> others? -_ Martin Luther King, Jr.
> 
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> From: wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com
> <wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com> On Behalf Of Joshua McKarcher
> Sent: Monday, November 6, 2023 4:03 PM
> To: WSBA Probate & Trust Listserv <wsbapt at lists.wsbarppt.com>
> Subject: [WSBAPT] PRs/TTEEs hiring own children as estate employees
> 
> Elderly co-PRs and co-trustees of a joint probate hired their own
> underemployed children - who were already beneficiaries, with the
> co-PRs, of 50% of the estate - to administer a single home, two cars,
> a couple bank accounts, and the usual tangible personal property (in
> non-metropolis Clarkston, mind you).
> 
> Thus, that "50% of the estate" has charged a $200,000 net estate over
> $15,800 in time and mileage for 4 people to clean the house, shop, run
> around town, etc. (This is additional to the $12,000 in reimbursed
> expenses the PRs advanced, and $8,000 in legal fees and costs.)
> 
> Fun facts:
> 
>  	* Over $8,000 of the fees are of the son and daughter, not the two
> PRs/trustees.
> 
>  	* All 4 charged $20/hour for all services.
> 
>  	* All hours on all 4 timesheets are in whole numbers, as is all
> mileage. (Along with mileage are charges for gas fill-ups. Woohoo!)
> 
>  	* 2 hours for each bank visit, often by both PRs.
> 
>  	* 10+ days of the daughter charging 8 hours flat with narrative:
> "cleaning."
> 
>  	* The two kids' "timesheets" were constructed recently, by reference
> to calendars and texts, as they didn't realize they needed to have
> kept contemporaneous time records. The co-PRs' at least were
> apparently kept contemporaneously, even if generously (by virtue of
> the rounding).
> 
> I have never encountered this. I do not object to fiduciary or lawyer
> fees; it's not my norm at all. But this feels "off."
> 
> If you have any experience with addressing such apparent nepotism and
> potential double dipping - or, even if you have a point of view about
> its reasonableness or how on earth one might determine what IS
> reasonable in such a case - I'd be grateful for your two cents.
> 
> I'd even sleep better to be told this is perfectly normal and that
> co-fiduciaries with non-intervention powers can hire anyone they want,
> etc., and no Washington caselaw is going to say otherwise.
> 
> Thanks, Josh
> 
> Joshua D. McKarcher
> 
> McKarcher Law PLLC
> 
> 537 6th Street
> 
> Clarkston, WA 99403
> 
> (509) 758-3345
> 
> (509) 758-3314 (fax)
> 
> josh at mckarcherlaw.com
> 
> www.mckarcherlaw.com [1]
> 
> 
> 
> Links:
> ------
> [1] http://www.mckarcherlaw.com/
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