Any lawyers in the house with estate planning experience?

[Chris Allingham]

I'm trying to engage an estate planning attorney to help revise my Dad's living trust. Before they will even talk to us, they want to do a "conflict check to rule out any conflict of any kind in representing your father for his estate planning matter." They want my Dad's full legal name and the same for everyone listed in the trust document.

I've personally been through 4 iterations of living trust updates and never been told that a "conflict check" was required upfront.

I assume this is to protect the law firm and not our family. Does anyone have knowledge about this requirement?

 

[DanHoo]

I'm not a lawyer, and I don't play one on TV.

I think it is to protect the firm, as well as the named principles in the trust. If an attorney already represents an individual named in the trust there is a potential conflict of interest. This might require written agreement, or might lead to the attorney declining the work.

If a conflict was not researched in advance and then found at a later time I think the attorney could be responsible.

 

[Brett-EDH]

I deal with counsel often and there’s always a background check for conflicts of interest. It protects the law firm from being sued by you. It’s a simple check whereby the names are run through the firm’s database to see if any matches come up. You can PM me if you’d like and I can answer additional questions if you have any.

 

[Jim C in Denver]

Not unusual.

Some folks will have an initial meeting to see if there is mutual interest before doing conflicts and an engagement letter.

Problem is that the lawyer still will have confidentiality and other obligations even if he does not get hired. So not a bad practice to run conflicts first thing before any substantive info is shared.

 

[ChuckO]

It's to weed out Trustee(s) that could have interests that conflict with the Trust's best interest. A Will could actually conflict with the Trust. Fiduciaries have to be checked to be sure their interest doesn't conflict with the Trust, and that they're not self serving when acting in the capacity of a Fiduciary.

Some top level list of conflicts are describe well here

What Is a Conflict of Interest for a Trustee of a Trust? | The Law Office of Janet Brewer

If you are the trustee of a trust or benefit from one, it can be helpful to know the conflict of interest rules for California trustees. State law prohibits trustees from taking certain actions that involve the trust, but allows them choice in other areas. What Is a Conflict of Interest? A...

www.calprobate.com

 

[Chris in Louisiana]

Attorneys routinely do a conflicts check before taking on a new client. They make sure that neither they nor any of their partners are involved in lawsuits or disputes where they may be adverse to to the potential new client.

For example, your Uncle Joe is a beneficiary of the trust. But the conflicts check reveals that the lawyer's partner is representing Uncle Joe's ex-wife in a custody battle against Joe. That could make it a conflict of interest for the firm to take on your estate planning work.