## Facts

- In December 2005, Gloria and Louis Flanzer created and funded a philanthropic trust that was irrevocable at creation.
- Louis died in June 2013; Gloria died in March 2015.
- In November 2015, Jan Flanzer sued to invalidate multiple estate-planning instruments, including the philanthropic trust.
- Jan alleged that, from at least 2001 until Gloria’s death, the trustees had a fiduciary and confidential relationship with Gloria while serving as her accountant, financial and business advisor, and attorney.
- Jan alleged Gloria had diminished mental capacity and was susceptible to undue influence, and that the trustees used their relationship to exclude Jan from the estate plan.
- Count V sought revocation of the philanthropic trust as the product of undue influence.
- The trial court dismissed Count V with prejudice as time-barred, accepting the trustees’ position that a four-year period ran from the trust’s 2005 creation.

## Issues

1. Whether an undue-influence claim challenging an irrevocable trust is barred by a four-year limitations period measured from the trust’s creation date.
2. Whether such an undue-influence claim may be treated as an action “founded upon fraud,” permitting delayed accrual under Fla. Stat. § 95.031(2)(a).
3. Whether dismissal at the pleading stage was proper without determining when the alleged undue influence was, or should have been, discovered with due diligence.

## Decision

- The Second District Court of Appeal reversed the dismissal of Count V and remanded.
- The court held the claim may fall within the delayed-discovery provisions applicable to actions founded on fraud under Fla. Stat. § 95.031(2)(a).
- The court rejected a categorical rule that the limitations period necessarily begins at the creation of an irrevocable trust.
- Applying de novo review, the court concluded it was error to find the claim time-barred as a matter of law based solely on the 2005 creation date.

## Legal Principles

- Florida law permits a challenge to the validity of a trust, or a portion of a trust, procured by undue influence. § 736.0406, Fla. Stat. (2015).
- Where the Florida Trust Code does not supply a limitations period for a trust contest, chapter 95 governs the limitations and accrual rules.
- For “actions founded upon fraud,” accrual may be delayed until the facts are discovered or should have been discovered with due diligence, subject to a statutory outer limit. § 95.031(2)(a), Fla. Stat. (2015).
- An undue-influence claim attacking a trust’s validity may be treated as an action founded upon fraud for purposes of applying delayed discovery.
- A complaint should not be dismissed as untimely at the pleading stage if delayed discovery could apply and the accrual date cannot be fixed solely from the trust’s execution or irrevocability.

## Conclusion

The appellate court reinstated the beneficiary’s undue-influence challenge to an irrevocable trust, holding that such claims can be treated as founded upon fraud and therefore may accrue under Florida’s delayed-discovery rule rather than automatically at the trust’s creation.


Flanzer v. Kaplan, 230 So. 3d 960 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2d Dist. 2017)