In re. Estate of Agnes H. Wright is an appellate case that deals with whether an individual's attorneys can be disqualified. The case is available here as a pdf. I'm less interested in that issue than in the issue that prompted the litigation in the first place. This is an undue influence case, pitting sibling vs. sibling. At issue is a trust amendment signed by Mrs. Wright. The trust amendment says that she loaned her son Peter $1.8 million to purchase a vacation home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. The amendment recites other information about the transaction, but the key is that the amendment characterizes the transaction as a loan. Peter, however, says that the transaction was a gift, and that the trust amendment was executed only because Peter's sister Linda exerted undue influence against their mother.
If I had any advice to take from the case, it would be this: resolve issues of loan vs. gift before death, by a writing signed by all parties. The problem in the above case is that the amendment is signed only by Mrs. Wright. If you want to loan money to a child, have the child agree to the terms of the loan BEFORE you hand over the money. Similarly, if you want to gift money to a child, think seriously about making equal gifts to all children OR having all children acknowledge that the gift IS a gift (not a loan).
