MARGARET REDDICK, APPELLANT,
v.
SUNTRUST BANK, EAST CENTRAL FLORIDA, ETC., APPELLEE

Fla. 5th DCA | 1998-10-16
No. 97-2253
GRIFFIN, C.J., and DAUKSCH, J., concur.
718 So. 2d 950 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fifth District (1998)

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.

Synopsis

Margaret Reddick, as plenary guardian of her incapacitated husband Albert, sought court approval to amend his revocable trust by replacing SunTrust Bank as successor trustee with herself. The trial court denied the request, finding she failed to demonstrate it was in Albert's best interest, and the appellate court affirmed.


Holding

The court affirmed the trial court's denial of the amendment request, holding that Margaret Reddick failed to establish by substantial competent evidence that replacing SunTrust with herself as trustee was in Albert's best interest.


Headnotes

[1] A plenary guardian may petition a court for approval to exercise powers as a trustee on behalf of an incapacitated ward, provided it is in the ward's best interest.

[2] A trial court must find that amending a ward's trust is in the ward's best interest before approving a plenary guardian's petition to do so.

Previewing 2 of 5 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Key Quotes

“Mrs. Reddick has failed to show any overriding benefit to Mr. Reddick's Trust, which convinces this Court that his estate plan, adopted after consultations with diversified planning disciplines, should be changed.”

The trial court's core finding that established the lack of best interest required by statute to amend the trust.

Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Facts & Procedural History

Albert Reddick's revocable trust, valued at $2.8 million in 1995 and consisting primarily of stock equities, named SunTrust Bank as trustee with succe…

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.


Opinion of the Court
W. SHARP, Judge.

W. SHARP, Judge.

Margaret Reddick appeals from the trial court’s order which denied her request to amend her incapacitated husband’s revocable trust, acting in her capacity as her husband’s plenary guardian. The trial court found that Margaret failed to show that it was in her husband’s (Albert Reddick’s) best interest to amend the trust as she proposed: substituting herself as successor trustee of his trust in place of SunTrust Bank, East Central Florida. We affirm.

The trial court made numerous fact findings, which are substantiated by the record below. It concluded:

Mrs. Reddick has failed to show any overriding benefit to Mr. Reddick’s Trust, which convinces this Court that his estate plan, adopted after consultations with diversified planning disciplines, should be changed. Mrs. Reddick’s offer to serve as Trustee without compensation and without the power to invade principal does not change the outcome.

The court also found that Margaret was devoted to her husband and her petition to replace SunTrust was well motivated.

Section 744.441 provides that with court approval, a plenary guardian may:

(2) Execute, exercise or release any powers as trustee, personal representative ... that the ward might have lawfully exercised, consummated or executed if not incapacitated, if the best interest of the ward requires such execution, exercise or relief.

In In re Guardianship of Muller, 650 So. 2d 698 (Fla. 4th DCA 1995), the court allowed a plenary guardian to amend a trust pursuant to section 744.441. The guardian showed that the current trustee had a conflict of interest, and it was in the incompetent’s best interest to amend the trust and remove the trustee.

In this case, the evidence tipped the other way. The value of the trust was $2,800,000 in 1995, consisting of stock equities. Albert had consistently selected corporate trustees to serve as trustee of his trust, as well as successor trustees. Margaret had little investment skills or knowledge about managing a stock portfolio. SunTrust had just recently begun to serve as trustee and Margaret had no complaint about the quality of service rendered thus far. Its fees for serving as trustee were $20,000, but there was no showing that this was an unreasonable amount for acting as trustee for a trust the size of Albert’s made up of stock equities.

The court also considered the fact that Albert’s trust documents were clear that he had intended to have a bank or corporate entity serve as trustee as well as successor trustee. It rejected and excluded various oral testimony that Albert had wanted to change his trustee. That appears to be a collateral matter. In our view, the issue in this case was whether Margaret established by substantial competent evidence that it was in Albert’s best interest to replace Sun Trust with herself as trustee of his trust. See Lonergan v. Estate of Budahazi, 669 So. 2d 1062 (Fla. 5th DCA 1996). Based on this record and the trial court’s findings, we conclude she failed to do so.

AFFIRMED.

GRIFFIN, C.J., and DAUKSCH, J., concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw