Isabella and her partner Jo were beneficiaries of Jo’s mom’s wealthy estate, but they received a paltry check in the mail when mom passed away. The executor, mom’s longtime neighbor with a knowledgeable trust manager, was hard to reach and ultimately refused to provide proper accounting for the trust.
Isabella and Jo hired a lawyer with 30 years of experience in probate matters. They paid a $10,000 retainer and then… nothing. After chasing the lawyer for a year and seeing the retainer drained, they learned the lawyer wanted $2-3000 monthly to continue. They never even got the file or their original documents back. Luckily, Isabella’s trust is handled by a lawyer she trusts, so that bad prior experience didn’t spoil her on the entire profession.
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