Author: Allan Harrison

Attorney, Engineer or Firm Being Reviewed: Sean W. Kelly ESQ

Jurisdiction: Florida

The Review: I am a former Co-Trustee of my late brother’s Trust. Unfortunately, the Trust was written by my brother and had three Co-Trustees. The Trust itself was never reviewed by a lawyer and is totally unmanageable. The language was not coherent and the terms were unknown except to the deceased.

The three Trustees which at that time included myself, hired a lawyer for the Trust and the Estate. That was the first lawyer. He quit because he knew it was a mess and he didn’t want to be involved!

This review is about the second lawyer that we hired. He was employed in March of 2020.

The first problem arose when he neglected to respond to a beneficiary who inquired about a financial statement that she was actually entitled to have. The letter was written in August and he did not tell the Trustees about the letter until December of 2020. Attorney K was hired because he claimed to have multiple abilities that were needed to administer the Trust which included accounting, estate and Trust matters. He had the Trustees send account information to an accountant who sat on it and did nothing for three months and then he resigned. He had us send the information to another accountant.

After one week at the insistence of one of the other Co-Trustees and without notification to the other two Trustees, had it pulled from the second accountant and sent to a third accountant. All Trustees were required to make a unanimous decision but he failed miserably to act in the correct and legal manner of being a lawyer for the Trust and Estate which under his employment never went to Probate. My brother died in October of 2019 and nothing was done to facilitate the Probate or in the administration of the Trust.

I resigned as a Co-Trustee in January, 2021 due to health reasons. At the time of my resignation, Attorney K had not filed anything at all for either the Estate or the Trust. Because of his lack of judgment involving the Beneficiary and incompetent practices, a complaint was filed with the Florida Bar and he withdrew as Counsel. Following his withdrawal, the Beneficiary who asked for the information, found her own Attorney and filed a lawsuit against the Trust, myself and another Trustee which in 2023 remains as an ongoing lawsuit.

Authority: I am exercising my First Amendment Right to express my personal opinion and experience. I have read and accept the SFELR.org Terms and Conditions.