If you are required to work with this law firm, I highly recommend that you retain your own legal counsel, and remember: this law firm does not work for the beneficiaries or the trust, they work for themselves. Their goal is to maximize their earnings and minimize their involvement.
If you want your case handled appropriately and fully, retain your own counsel who will work only for you.
Wilsons does not double check or ask for proof of the worth of any of the physical property involved in the estate that they are overseeing, they take the main trustees word for it. They do not require an appraiser or investigation, a number can just be made up or left out.
They also do not ask the trustee to provide a detailed record of the splitting of the total assets and they do not present one to the beneficiaries upon request, or at the closing of the case.
They ignore multiple requests for that record, as well as multiple requests to provide copies of the original trust so you can ensure that the original creator of the trust's wishes are being followed, and to ensure that all of the beneficiaries' best interests are being kept in mind.
They rush things, and if the trustee is not meeting their fiduciary duties, they brush aside any questions or concerns.
A two star review was given because they are decent at organizing the liquid assets and investments of the trust, decent at answering questions on what is required to transfer those assets and investments, and are adequate at ensuring that those items are initially split appropriately.
But they do not follow through in ensuring that the entirety of the trust account is appropriately paid out after taxes, or to ensure that any proceeds from sold physical property is appropriately dispersed.
They assume that the trustee is doing what they are legally required to do, will not entertain anything that indicates otherwise, and it appears as if they quickly and prematurely close cases to avoid dealing with potential issues.
The paralegals are pretty good at communicating, but the lawyers are not.
They use the same template for all of their trust paperwork, and my new lawyer found several mistakes where things must have been copied and pasted and put into areas in the creation of a new trust that negated and contradicted several key parts of that new trust. It appears that they either do not understand how to draw up and create trusts, or they do not proofread and make pretty impactful mistakes.
To be honest, I felt like their overall approach was evasive. Everything was veiled, nothing was said in plain English, they pushed everything through without being thorough, and they talked around most questions and concerns that were raised. Especially the serious ones.
I had mistakenly believed that they were working for the trust and all of the beneficiaries. Now, if I want things split as outlined in the original trust, it looks like it will be a couple years of litigation and lawyer fees, which by then (because no detailed accounting of the physical assets was ever recorded) I assume most of the physical property will be hidden or sold save the few items that I have independent records of.
I am on the fence about dedicating that much of my time, as I have been ready to put this entire situation behind me and move on and get used to my life without my loved ones. I am taking some time to think about it to decide if I want to dedicate that much of my energy.
If I had listened to the advice I received at the beginning of this entire mess, I would have hired my own lawyer immediately and I would have not trusted that Wilson Law was working in the beneficiaries' best interests.
Overall, I do not recommend this law firm. Nothing was done well. And the things that were adequately done certainly did not outweigh the careless, irresponsible, and sloppy handling of this case. read more