## Facts

- In 2006, Lillie S. White created a revocable trust naming herself as trustee and her granddaughter, Lisa Rene, as successor trustee upon White’s incapacity.
- In June 2013, White was adjudicated incapacitated due to senile dementia, and her sister, Janie Sykes-Kennedy, was appointed limited guardian of White’s person and property; the court found White incapable of, among other things, contracting and managing property.
- In August 2013, Sykes-Kennedy petitioned in the guardianship case for authority to amend the trust to appoint herself as trustee instead of Rene.
- Sykes-Kennedy asserted the change was needed to access trust assets for White’s care and because White was worried Rene controlled her property.
- After an evidentiary hearing, the guardianship court authorized an amendment solely to substitute Sykes-Kennedy as trustee, prohibited any other amendment, and expressly found no evidence of wrongdoing by Rene.
- Rene appealed, challenging the guardianship court’s authority to approve the amendment within the guardianship proceeding and disputing that the change served White’s best interests.

## Issues

1. Whether a guardianship court may authorize a guardian of the property to exercise an incapacitated settlor’s power to amend a revocable trust to replace the named successor trustee with the guardian.
2. Whether such relief must be brought as a separate trust proceeding commenced by complaint under Florida trust procedure statutes rather than by petition within the guardianship case.
3. Whether the trial court abused its discretion in finding the trustee substitution was in the ward’s best interests.

## Decision

- The appellate court affirmed the order authorizing the guardian to amend the trust to appoint herself as trustee.
- The court held that Florida statutes permit a guardian of the property, with court approval, to exercise an incapacitated settlor’s power to amend a revocable trust when the amendment is in the ward’s best interests.
- The court rejected the argument that the request was procedurally barred because it was pursued in the guardianship proceeding rather than by a separate civil trust action.
- The court upheld the best-interests determination, finding sufficient evidentiary support and no abuse of discretion.
- The court treated the authorization as limited to changing the trustee and not as approval of broader trust changes.

## Legal Principles

- A guardian of the property may, with prior court approval under the guardianship statutes, exercise an incapacitated settlor’s powers to revoke or amend a revocable trust as permitted by Florida’s trust code provisions linking those powers to guardianship court authorization.
- A guardianship court may grant authorization affecting a ward’s revocable trust within the guardianship case when the request concerns the guardian’s court-supervised exercise of the ward’s property powers and is directed to the ward’s best interests.
- Statutes describing trust proceedings commenced by complaint do not bar a guardianship court from approving a guardian’s statutorily authorized trust amendment requested as part of guardianship administration.
- Best-interests findings supported by competent evidence are reviewed deferentially; selecting a trustee to protect and administer the ward’s property is committed to the trial court’s discretion when statutorily authorized.
- An order authorizing trust amendment may be confined to the specific approved change, and the decision does not necessarily extend to amendments altering beneficial interests.

## Conclusion

The court affirmed a guardianship order permitting a property guardian to amend an incapacitated settlor’s revocable trust to substitute the guardian as trustee, holding that Florida’s guardianship and trust statutes authorize such court-approved action within the guardianship proceeding when supported by a best-interests finding.


Rene v. Sykes-Kennedy, 156 So. 3d 518 (Fla. 5th Dist. Ct. App. 2015)