T&E Litigation Update: "Michaud v. Forcier"

In Michaud v. Forcier, Case No. 09-P-392, 2010 Mass. App. LEXIS 1296 (Oct. 5, 2010), the Appeals Court affirmed a decision of the probate court reforming the schedule of beneficiaries of a nominee trust and ordering the repayment of funds withdrawn from a joint account.

The decedent, who had a daughter and two grandchildren, placed her real estate (about 28 acres) in the nominee trust, under the terms of which the decedent retained a life estate and her daughter and two grandchildren were given equal shares as remainder beneficiaries. After establishing the trust, however, the decedent conveyed nearly half of the real estate (13.56 acres) to her granddaughter for nominal consideration. In order to effectuate this conveyance, the daughter had hired a lawyer and arranged for the co-trustee of the trust other than the decedent to resign, thereby allowing the decedent to sign the deed as sole trustee. The deed falsely recited that all of the beneficiaries of the