Contested Estates and Trusts
Probate Litigation
We represent personal representatives, trustees, beneficiaries and creditors in Michigan probate courts, in matters where intent, capacity, or the conduct of a fiduciary is genuinely in question.
What This Work Actually Involves
When an Estate Becomes Contested
Probate disputes are litigation, and they are litigated in a court with its own procedure, its own timelines and its own expectations. They are also, almost always, disputes among people who know each other, which changes how they are fought and how they are best resolved.
The estates we are brought into tend to be complicated for a reason: an operating business among the assets, a creditor whose claim is contested, a fiduciary whose accounting does not reconcile, or a question about whether the decedent understood what was being signed. We handle both sides of these matters, for fiduciaries defending their administration and for beneficiaries challenging it.
Will and trust contests
Challenges based on capacity, undue influence, fraud or defective execution, and the defense of instruments against those challenges.
Fiduciary disputes
Claims against personal representatives and trustees for breach of duty, self-dealing or failure to account, and the defense of fiduciaries who are administering an estate correctly.
Contested creditor claims
Presenting, contesting and resolving claims against an estate, including the complex claims that arise when the decedent held operating business interests.
Accountings, surcharge and removal
Compelling an accounting, pursuing surcharge, and petitioning to remove or replace a fiduciary who should not remain in the role.
Guardianship and conservatorship disputes
Contested appointments and challenges to the conduct of an appointed guardian or conservator.
Business interests inside an estate
Where the estate holds a closely held company, the valuation, control and succession questions that the probate dispute turns on.
Representative Experience
Matters We Have Handled
Contested probate litigation
Represented the personal representative of an estate in contested probate litigation in Oakland County Probate Court, involving complex creditor claims and questions of the decedent's capacity. All contested issues were resolved by settlement.
Reese Serra and Matt Wozniak ยท 2025
The matters described above are examples of work performed by The Private Firm. Client identities and identifying details have been omitted or generalized. Every matter turns on its own facts and its own law. Prior results do not guarantee, predict or imply a similar outcome in any future matter. Nothing on this page constitutes legal advice or creates an attorney-client relationship.
Who Handles This Work
Probate Litigation Counsel at The Private Firm
Contested probate matters at the firm pair a litigator with an attorney who handles estate planning and administration, because the dispute usually turns on documents and duties that have to be understood from the planning side as well as the courtroom side.