Opinion ID: 2310646
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Goldstein's Trustee Compensation

Text: The trust instrument provided that non-institutional trustees would be compensated as is customary for trustees in the District of Columbia. In determining the propriety of Goldstein's trustee compensation, the court credited Zinsser's statement that non-institutional trustees customarily bill their time at an hourly rate if they usually bill at an hourly rate in their business; otherwise, non-institutional co-trustees are typically paid fifty percent (50%) of what the institutional co-trustee is paid. Rather than presenting an hourly statement of services, Goldstein, a certified public accountant, charged the Trust the same commissions charged by Riggs at its institutional rate. The probate court found that Goldstein's request for commissions was entirely arbitrary and approved Goldstein's trustee commissions at fifty percent (50%) of the commissions charged by Riggs. [4] The court then considered Goldstein's trustee compensation as a whole, finding that compensation Goldstein had previously received from the trust, billing the trust for his services at Riggs' institutional rate, was more than the amount to which he was entitled when his trustee compensation was properly computed at fifty percent (50%) of Riggs' compensation. Because Goldstein had overcharged the trust by almost fifteen thousand dollars, [5] the probate court denied Goldstein any further trustee compensation. Rather than have Goldstein reimburse the estate for the prior overpayment in trust fees, however, the probate court offset the amount Goldstein had been overpaid as a trustee against the amount he was requesting in personal representative compensation. Although we perceive no abuse of discretion in the probate court's denial of further trustee compensation to Goldstein, the record is unclear as to the trial court's decision to offset the overpayment as trustee against Goldstein's requested compensation as personal representative of the Estate. See infra part C. [6]