Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Virginia

guardian and conservator for state of virginia

large estate------guardian and conservator taking fee of 5% of income receipts plus 1 percent of principal all according to virginia law-----then he created a general manager job for himself and gave himself a salary of $45,000 for total fees per year of $125,000----bottom line --he is being paid for 3 titles -----question is this legal


Asked on 3/14/09, 4:36 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Jonathon Moseley Moseley & Associates Law Firm

Re: guardian and conservator for state of virginia

Basically, there are no hard-and-fast rules. it comes down to convincing the judge that the fees are either reasonable or not reasonable.

Whether the fees are reasonable will be judged considering the complexity of the work, how much time it is taking,t he size of the estate, the total amount of the fees (not just the percentage), etc., etc. -- the totality of the circumstances.

However, from what very, very LITTLE you have said, I would QUESTION the propriety of the guardian and conservator creating another job for himself.

That COULD be considered a breach of his fiduciary duty, as a conflict of interest and or "self-dealing."

You have given very few facts, and I would LOOK before you leap and consider the entire situation, but I think that without the consent of the beneficiaries, it is probably a breach of the fidicuary duty to the beneficiaries to write himself into a 2nd job for which he gets paid.

The fiduciary duty, in theory, is very harsh. (In practice, where the same professional lawyers or bankers do this all the time, the system tends to assume they are doing it right, just out of habit of mind as a human response.)

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Answered on 3/14/09, 11:48 pm


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