Estate disputes are family disputes with a court attached. The executor is usually a sibling or a parent’s new spouse. The money at stake is often a house that everyone grew up in. And the rules are unfamiliar: a beneficiary cannot simply sue, an executor cannot simply refuse, and the deadlines run from notices that most people do not recognize when they arrive. Our job is to turn the problem into the proceeding that resolves it, and to get a result you can live with as quickly as the court allows.
Every estate dispute has the same shape. Someone with a stake in the estate believes something was done wrong, and someone else has to answer for it. The court decides on evidence, and the evidence is nearly always in the records: the will and the drafting file, the medical chart, the bank statements, the deed, the accounting. We know what those records need to show, how to get them, and how a Surrogate reads them. That is what lets us tell you, early and candidly, what your position is worth. Call 212-233-1233 or email [email protected].
What Kind of Dispute Do You Have?
Answer three questions and this page will name the proceeding that fits and point you to our pages on it. Nothing you enter on this page leaves your browser.
The Disputes We Handle
Will Contests
Whether a will is valid: capacity, undue influence, fraud, forgery, and the formalities of signing. The estate must prove the will was properly executed by a competent testator; the objectant must prove influence or fraud. Our will contests guide covers standing, deadlines, the grounds and the process from the SCPA 1404 examinations through trial.
Accountings
The accounting is where an estate’s numbers are finally tested: every receipt, every expense, every sale, every commission. Beneficiaries can compel one after seven months and object to any entry; a decree on it binds everyone who was cited. Most disputes about money in an estate are decided here. See contesting an accounting.
Executor and Trustee Conduct
Self-dealing, commingling, favoring one beneficiary, ignoring the will, delay. The court can surcharge a fiduciary for losses, deny commissions, and remove one who should not serve. It will not do any of that for a disagreement about judgment, and the records usually decide which it was.
Assets That Left the Estate
Accounts emptied under a power of attorney, a house deeded to one child, a joint account that swallowed the estate. A discovery and turnover proceeding decides whether the property belonged to the decedent or was a valid gift. See power of attorney investigations, deed transfers and beneficiary designations.
Spousal Claims
A surviving spouse may take one-third of the estate regardless of the will, and the share reaches assets that passed outside it. The dispute is usually about what counts, what it is worth, and whether a waiver holds. See the right of election proceeding.
Kinship Proceedings
When someone dies without a will and without close family, the estate goes to whoever proves they are the nearest relative. The proof is documentary, often from abroad, and the court tests every claimant’s chain of relationship.
Trust Litigation
Information and distributions, investment losses, trustee compensation, and whether the trust itself was validly made. Trust cases follow the same principles as estate cases with different procedure and no citation to warn the parties.
Disputes Over the House
A co-heir living in it, a refusal to sell, a sale questioned as too cheap or to the wrong buyer. Partition, ejectment, use-and-occupancy, and court approval of a sale are the tools. See a sibling living in the parents’ house.
Unclear Wills and Trusts
When a document can be read two ways, a construction proceeding asks the court to decide which reading controls, using the document, the drafting file and the decedent’s circumstances.
Claims Against the Estate
Debts, services rendered, promises the decedent allegedly made, Medicaid and tax claims. A claim is presented to the fiduciary, allowed or rejected, and, if rejected, decided in the accounting or a separate proceeding.
What Decides These Cases
Estate disputes feel personal, but the court decides them on a few settled principles. Knowing them early tells you what your position is worth and what to do about it.
The burden of proof
Who has to prove what decides more cases than the facts do. The proponent of a will proves execution and capacity; the objectant proves undue influence and fraud. The estate proves the decedent owned property it seeks to recover; the recipient proves a gift. The fiduciary proves the accounting; the objectant proves the objection.
The records
Bank and brokerage statements, the medical chart, the drafting attorney’s file, the deed, the closing statement. Testimony about what the decedent wanted matters less than what the paper shows they did. Getting the records early, by subpoena if necessary, is most of the work.
Duties and rights
A fiduciary must keep estate property separate, act in the beneficiaries’ interest, account for everything, and distribute within a reasonable time. Beneficiaries are entitled to information and an accounting; they are not entitled to run the estate. Disputes are resolved by measuring what happened against those lines.
Removal is for cause
The court removes executors and trustees for dishonesty, waste, disobeying the court, leaving the state, or unfitness. It does not remove them because the beneficiaries would have decided differently. A removal petition rises or falls on specific, documented acts.
Lifetime transfers
Gifts, deeds and account changes made in the decedent’s last years are the most contested transactions in estate law. A confidential relationship between the decedent and the recipient shifts the burden of explanation; the decedent’s own statements, independent advice, and consistency with earlier plans usually settle it.
Deadlines and waivers
The return date on a citation, the seven months before an accounting can be compelled, the six months for a spouse’s election, the receipt and release that closes a beneficiary’s claims. Missing a date or signing a form is the most common way a strong position is lost.
How a Surrogate’s Court Case Unfolds
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Evaluation
We read the will, the court file and whatever records you have, and tell you what the claim is, what it is worth, how long it will take and what it will cost. Sometimes the honest answer is that there is no case, or that a letter will resolve it.
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Petition and citation
Every proceeding starts with a petition and a citation served on everyone with an interest. If you received one, the return date on it is your deadline. If you are bringing the case, we draft the petition to get the relief that actually solves your problem.
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Objections and answer
The other side responds in writing. In a will contest the objections are due after the SCPA 1404 examinations; in an accounting, objections are due by the return date; in a turnover proceeding, the respondent answers under oath.
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Discovery
Document demands, subpoenas to banks and doctors, and depositions. This is where estate cases are won: the bank records, the medical chart, the drafting attorney’s file and the deposition of the person who benefited.
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Settlement
Most estate disputes settle after discovery, at a court conference or in mediation, once each side can see what a trial would show. A good settlement is documented in a stipulation the court so-orders, with releases from everyone.
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Trial and decree
Cases that do not settle are tried before the Surrogate, or before a jury in a will contest. The decree can be appealed to the Appellate Division.
Why Clients Choose Us
We know these cases from every seat in the courtroom
Petitioner and respondent, will contest and accounting, Surrogate and jury. We know what the other side will argue before they argue it, and which claims judges take seriously.
Straight talk about odds and cost
Estate litigation is expensive, and some fights are not worth having. We tell you when yours is one of them. Where the numbers justify it, we take cases on contingency.
The Surrogate’s Courts we appear in
New York, Kings, Queens, Bronx, Richmond, Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester counties. Each court has its own practices, and we have been in front of these judges and clerks for years.
Results
Wills set aside, executors removed and surcharged, houses and accounts recovered, and honest fiduciaries cleared. See our case results.
Questions People Ask Us
Can a beneficiary sue an executor?
Not in the ordinary sense. The remedies are proceedings in Surrogate’s Court: to compel an accounting, to object to one, to remove the executor, or to recover specific property. The result can include a personal judgment against the executor, but the path is different. See can a beneficiary sue an executor.
What happens when an executor is accused of taking estate money?
The accounting decides it. Every dollar in and out is listed with documents behind it, and the beneficiaries object to what they dispute. Most accusations dissolve once the records are on the table; the ones that survive end in a surcharge, a personal judgment for the loss.
How long do I have?
It depends on the proceeding. Objections to a will are due by the citation’s return date or shortly after the SCPA 1404 examinations. A spouse’s right of election must be exercised within six months of letters issuing and no later than two years after death. Objections to an accounting are due by the return date. If you received a citation, call before the date on it.
Can an executor or trustee be held personally liable?
Yes. A surcharge in an accounting proceeding is a personal judgment for the loss the fiduciary caused, and commissions can be denied. It does not follow from an honest mistake in judgment; it follows from self-dealing, ignoring the will, or failing to act. Fiduciaries who document their decisions and take advice when unsure are rarely surcharged.
Who pays for the lawyers?
A fiduciary defending the will or a proper accounting is paid from the estate. A beneficiary generally pays their own lawyer, though the court can award fees from the estate when the proceeding benefited it, and a surcharged fiduciary can be ordered to bear costs. Where the estate is large enough, we take strong cases on contingency.
The estate is “closed.” Does that end it?
A signed receipt and release can be set aside only for fraud or if the beneficiary was not given the information they were entitled to. A decree on a judicial accounting binds everyone who was cited unless it is vacated. If neither happened, the estate is not closed as to anyone who did not sign or was not cited. That is also why a decree is worth obtaining: it ends the exposure.
I live out of state. Can you handle it?
Yes. The case is where the decedent lived or where the property is, and many of our clients live elsewhere. Depositions and conferences are often done by video, and you rarely need to appear until trial.
Will this take years?
A contested accounting or a turnover proceeding often resolves within a year. A will contest that goes to trial takes one to two years. Cases settle at every stage, and part of our job is pushing toward the stage where the other side is ready.
Read More
Holding an Executor Accountable
The proceedings available when an executor will not communicate, account or distribute.
The Executor’s Job
What an executor must do, may do, and cannot do, and how to keep the estate out of court.
Removing an Executor
The statutory grounds, what the court wants to see, and how removal petitions are answered.
Disagreements in Estates
Sell or keep, valuation, who gets what: resolving disputes before they become proceedings.
Spousal Claims Against an Estate
What a surviving spouse is entitled to with and without a will.
Surrogate’s Court Litigation
How the court works, what it can order, and how it differs from Supreme Court.
Talk to Us About Your Case
Call 212-233-1233 or email [email protected]. Have the will, any court papers you received, and the dates ready. We will tell you what your options are and what each would cost before you decide anything.
