Equitable Reformation of a Trust

An exceptional trust and estate expert witness should do much more than only offer an opinion at trial – they should help you succeed by developing unique solutions for all types of challenges. In cases involving specialized standard of care, expert testimony is required to sustain the plaintiff’s burden of proof, and failure to timely retain and prepare a qualified expert could lose you the case before it even begins. In standard of care cases especially, hiring the right expert will win you half the battle.

The effectiveness of an expert witness depends largely on two things. Whether the expert is

1. Preeminent in his or her field
2. The recognized authority in the area of testimony

In the area of trust and estate planning, having an expert whose authority has been recognized by the Court will carry great weight in winning a case.

Tucker Cheadle is an attorney, licensed trustee, and tax expert who has been qualified to testify as an expert witness in the areas of income taxes for estates, trusts and beneficiaries, trust accountings, standard of care for drafting trust and estate documents, and reasonableness of attorney’s fees and trustee’s fees. He has served as an expert witness in cases filed in Los Angeles County, Orange County, the surrounding counties of Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Maria, and Reno and Cleveland.

Tucker Cheadle’s authority in the field of trust and estate planning has been recognized by the California courts. For example, in a recently published February 2020 California Court of Appeal decision, Gary Forrest Wilkin v. William Nelson, the Court of Appeal referred to, and adopted, Tucker Cheadle’s opinions as an expert on the attorney standard of care in drafting estate planning documents.

The Court of Appeal adopted Tucker Cheadle’s trust and estate planning expert opinion as to

1. Equitable reformation or modification of a trust on the standard of care in drafting estate planning documents
   The Court implemented Tucker Cheadle’s expert opinion that if the trustor of the specific trust at issue wanted her community property assets to be transferred into the trust, the trust should have been amended to permit the transfer of the community property assets.
2. The intent of the trustor
   The Court implemented Tucker Cheadle’s expert opinion that the purpose of having a trust is to bypass probate, so if the trustor wanted the property to be passed by a non-probate mechanism, the trustor would not depend on the probate of a will to transfer the property.

Tucker Cheadle has the expert knowledge and experience to advise trustees, beneficiaries, administrators of trusts and estates, and drafters of estate planning documents on virtually all aspects of trusts and estates.

Call Tucker Cheadle at 949-553-1066 to discuss your trust or estate planning expert witness needs.