You started asking questions about how your parent’s estate was being handled, and now you can’t stop. The executor stopped returning calls. Money moved out of an account nobody explained. A house sold to a cousin for less than it was worth, months before anyone else even knew it was for sale.
That unease has a name: breach of fiduciary duty. A breach of fiduciary duty happens any time the person running an estate puts their own interests, or someone else’s, ahead of the people the law says they’re supposed to protect. In Louisiana, that duty is written directly into the Code of Civil Procedure.
Hymel Davis & Petersen handles these kinds of disputes. A short conversation can tell you whether what you’re seeing is a breach of fiduciary duty and something the court can fix.
Key Takeaways
- A Louisiana succession representative’s fiduciary duty comes straight from the Code of Civil Procedure, not just professional custom.
- Self-dealing, missed deadlines, and refusing to account for estate assets are three complaints that often show up in Louisiana probate disputes.
- A court can remove a succession representative, order a surcharge, and unwind a bad transaction in the same judgment.
- Waiting to talk to someone can mean you miss the deadline to act.
If this sounds like what you’re watching happen to your family’s estate, Hymel Davis & Petersen can tell you whether it’s a real breach of fiduciary duty or just an unfamiliar part of a slow process.
What a Succession Representative’s Fiduciary Duty Requires
A succession representative’s duty here isn’t a matter of professional courtesy. It’s written into statute. Louisiana calls the person running your loved one’s estate a succession representative, and under Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure art. 3191, that person is a fiduciary from the day the court confirms them. The fiduciary duty requires the representative to act “at all times as a prudent administrator” and makes them personally responsible for damages if they don’t.
The fiduciary duty covers three things in practice:
- Collecting every asset the decedent owned
- Protecting those assets from loss or waste
- Managing the assets until the estate closes
An executor who lets a rental property sit vacant and uninsured for a year is failing at the second one. An administrator who never opens a bank account for succession funds is failing at the first.
Self-Dealing and Conflicts of Interest
Louisiana law flatly prohibits a succession representative from entering into contracts with the succession they represent, and from acquiring succession property for themselves, personally or through someone standing in for them. The law makes any such deal voidable and puts the representative on the hook for whatever damages follow. So when a cousin who happens to be the executor buys the family home from the estate for two-thirds of its appraised value, that isn’t a gray area. It’s the type of transaction the statute exists to stop, and the sale can be reversed even after it closes.
Mismanaging Money and Missing Deadlines
Self-dealing gets the headlines, but sloppy administration causes just as much damage over time. Common versions include:
- Commingling succession funds with the representative’s personal bank account
- Letting idle succession funds sit uninvested for years without court authorization
- Failing to prepare the sworn descriptive list of assets that Louisiana law requires early in the process
- Paying the representative’s own compensation before any court has approved it
Any one of these, standing alone, might be an honest mistake. A pattern of them, especially paired with silence when heirs ask questions, starts looking like something else.
Cutting Off Communication and Playing Favorites
A succession representative owes every heir and legatee the same duty. A representative who stops answering calls, refuses to produce bank statements, or distributes assets to one sibling ahead of another without court approval is breaching the duty of impartial, transparent administration even if no money has technically gone missing yet.
A Baton Rouge fiduciary litigation lawyer can request that accounting on your behalf and, if it never comes, ask the court to compel it.
What a Court Can Do Once It Finds a Breach
Once a judge finds an actual breach, the remedies aren’t limited to a stern warning. A court can order the representative to reimburse the estate dollar for dollar, known as a surcharge. It can reverse a sale made below fair value. It can remove the representative entirely for mismanagement or failure to perform any duty imposed by law or the court. None of these outcomes require proving criminal intent. Ordinary negligence, if it damaged the estate, is enough.
FAQs About Common Breaches of Fiduciary Duty in Estate Administration
Can I remove an executor without going to court first?
No, removal always runs through the succession proceeding itself. You’ll file a motion asking the judge to order the representative to show cause why they shouldn’t be removed, and the court decides after a hearing. An attorney may file this alongside a request for an accounting, since you’ll usually need both anyway.
Who pays for a breach of fiduciary duty lawsuit in Louisiana?
The estate typically covers a successful heir’s costs once the court finds real damage, since the recovery comes out of what the representative owes back. If the claim doesn’t hold up, you’re on your own for fees, which is worth weighing before you file.
What if the executor is also one of the beneficiaries?
That’s common and not a problem by itself. It becomes one the moment they use the position to benefit themselves more than the will or the law allows, like approving their own oversized fee or buying estate property below value.
Is a bad investment decision automatically a breach of fiduciary duty?
Not on its own. The prudent administrator standard protects reasonable judgment calls, even ones that don’t pan out, and only steps in when the decision was careless or served the representative’s interests over the estate’s.
Can I sue an executor for taking too long to distribute the estate?
You can, if the delay isn’t explained by something legitimate like tax filings or unresolved debts. Courts have real patience for slow estates but very little for representatives who simply stop working the file.
Hymel Davis & Petersen: A Baton Rouge Fiduciary Litigation Law Firm
You came here because something about how your family’s estate is being handled doesn’t sit right, and that instinct is usually worth trusting. Louisiana’s fiduciary rules are specific, and so are the deadlines attached to them. If the accounting doesn’t add up or the silence has gone on too long, contact our firm today and bring what you’ve gathered.
