## Facts

- Lola Kritchman created and amended a revocable trust; the operative instrument was the Fourth Amended and Restated Trust Agreement (Dec. 2007).
- During Lola’s lifetime, the trust authorized the trustee to pay principal “as [Lola] may direct at any time,” and Lola used the trust to pay Hunter Wolk’s private school tuition through high school and then Yale University tuition, room, and board for his first two years.
- On April 17, 2010, Lola wrote to the trust officer directing that Wolk’s junior and senior year Yale costs be paid, identifying an estimated cost for the junior year.
- Wells Fargo paid at least one semester of Wolk’s junior year expenses.
- Lola died during Wolk’s junior year; her son, William Kritchman, became co-trustee with Wells Fargo and personal representative of her estate.
- After Lola’s death, the co-trustees refused to pay Wolk’s remaining three Yale semesters.
- Wolk sued the co-trustees asserting contract and equitable theories and, relevant here, breach of trust; he also sought a ruling that the trust covered potential future graduate-school expenses.
- The co-trustees paid their litigation fees and costs from trust assets.

## Issues

1. Whether the co-trustees breached the trust by refusing to pay Wolk’s remaining undergraduate Yale expenses that Lola had directed in writing during her lifetime.
2. Whether the trust (or estate) could be held liable for Wolk’s possible future graduate-school expenses based on the trust’s broad “education” language and prior payments.
3. Whether attorneys’ fees and costs paid from the trust for the co-trustees’ benefit had to be disgorged and restored to the trust.

## Decision

- Affirmed the finding that the co-trustees breached the trust by failing to pay Wolk’s remaining Yale undergraduate expenses as directed by Lola’s April 17, 2010 letter and consistent prior payments.
- Affirmed the order requiring disgorgement of attorneys’ fees and costs paid from trust assets to or for the benefit of the co-trustees.
- Reversed the portion of the judgment imposing liability on the trust or estate for Wolk’s possible and future graduate-school expenses.
- Remanded for entry of an amended final judgment excluding any obligation to pay graduate-school expenses.

## Legal Principles

- A settlor’s clear written direction, made pursuant to authority reserved in the trust instrument to direct lifetime distributions, can create an enforceable trust obligation that trustees must carry out even after the settlor’s death.
- A general or broad definition of “education” in a trust does not, without specific dispositive language or a clear directive, establish liability for uncertain, future graduate-school expenses.
- Trustees who breach fiduciary duties may be required to restore to the trust attorneys’ fees and costs improperly charged to the trust in litigation that benefits the trustees and resists a valid beneficiary claim.

## Conclusion

The court required the co-trustees to complete payment of the undergraduate Yale expenses that the settlor specifically directed in writing during her lifetime, rejected imposing additional liability for speculative future graduate education, and ordered repayment to the trust of litigation fees and costs charged for the co-trustees’ benefit.


Kritchman v. Wolk, 152 So. 3d 628 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2014)