Breach of Fiduciary Duty in San Antonio

Most fiduciary duty cases we take in San Antonio involve an executor, administrator, or trustee who controlled other people’s property and used it for their own benefit. Proving that depends on documents, and the first step is usually a demand for an accounting.

• Estate account drained
• No accounting in over a year
• Property deeded to an insider
• Sale well below market
• Rent collected, never deposited
• Trustee who stopped answering
• Missing cash, jewelry, vehicles

Start With an Accounting

Before anyone argues about intent, you need a record. Estates Code 404.001 lets a beneficiary demand a written accounting from an independent executor fifteen months after the executor qualifies. If the executor does not provide it within sixty days, the beneficiary can ask the court to compel it. The demand costs little, and the accounting should show what came into the estate, what went out, and where the remaining assets are held.

If the asset is in a trust rather than an estate, Property Code 113.151 is the parallel provision for compelling an accounting from a trustee. Many families have both problems at once, because a parent put the house in a trust and left everything else under a will.

The response usually tells you a lot. A disorganized but honest executor will produce something imperfect, admit the gaps, and the dispute narrows to a few items. An executor who has been taking money tends to ignore the demand, send a one-page summary with no bank statements, or have a lawyer explain why you are not entitled to ask.

Estates Code 404.001 (accounting demand after fifteen months, sixty-day window to compel). Property Code 113.151 (compelling a trust accounting).

Self-Dealing Versus Honest Mistakes

A fiduciary can make mistakes without breaching a duty. Texas does not make an executor or trustee a guarantor of good results, and judges are not looking to punish an overwhelmed family member doing their best. The duty is breached when the fiduciary uses the position for personal benefit or hides having done so.

Conduct that usually supports a claim:

• The fiduciary is on both sides of a transaction, as seller and buyer, as landlord and tenant, or as borrower from the estate.
• Estate or trust funds pay a personal expense, and the entry is labeled vaguely or not at all.
• An asset moves to the fiduciary, a spouse, a child, or a business the fiduciary controls, at a price that was never tested against the market.
• Records are produced only after a demand, and only in summary form, with the underlying statements withheld.
• One beneficiary is paid or informed and the others are not.

Conduct that rarely supports a claim by itself:

• A slow administration, even one that runs well over a year.
• An investment that lost money without any personal benefit to the fiduciary.
• A bookkeeping error that is corrected once it is pointed out.

From the outside, it is often hard to tell which side of the line you are on until the records arrive. If the accounting shows your brother is just bad at paperwork, we will tell you that rather than file a claim the documents will not support.

When Assets Have Already Been Transferred

By the time a beneficiary notices self-dealing, the house may already be deeded, an account retitled, or a truck sold to a cousin. The case then involves ownership as well as breach of duty, and which court hears it matters.

Bexar County has three statutory probate courts under Gov’t Code 25.0171(c): Court No. 1 under Judge Oscar J. Kazen, No. 2 under Judge Veronica Vasquez, and No. 3 under Judge Barbie Scharf-Zeldes, all at 100 Dolorosa. Under Gov’t Code 25.0173(a), each has jurisdiction to decide the issue of title to real or personal property. That means the judge hearing your breach claim can also decide who owns the house.

Cases other than mental health matters are assigned among the three courts when filed, so you do not choose your judge. Under Gov’t Code 25.0173(p) the Bexar probate judges may sit and act for each other in any probate matter, and the local rules add that no formal appointment order is necessary.

Gov’t Code 25.0171(c) (three Bexar statutory probate courts); 25.0173(a) (title to real or personal property); 25.0173(p) (judges may sit for each other).

Expect Mediation Before Trial

The Bexar County probate courts’ local rules, approved September 25, 2026, address this directly. Rule 6.2(b) provides that except for good cause shown, the court will generally require the parties to participate in mediation before a contested matter is set for a final bench or jury trial.

For anyone considering a claim, that means:

• The accounting is evidence for trial and also your leverage at mediation. A fiduciary who cannot explain a transfer in writing usually cannot explain it at mediation either.
• Plan on a mediation date first and a trial date only if mediation fails, and budget your time and money with that in mind.
• Rule 6.2(c) lets the parties agree on a mediator, or the court appoints one from its approved list. Under 6.2(d) the costs are borne equally unless the court orders otherwise.

Deciding Whether to File

Under Rule 6.1(a), filing a contest or written opposition to an application makes the matter contested automatically, and the court may set a scheduling conference. Once you file, your case is on a docket with deadlines.

On the first call, the question is narrower than “do I have a case.” We will want to know whether a demand under 404.001 or 113.151 has been made, what the response was, and whether you are prepared to face this person at mediation.

What We Don’t Handle

We do not do routine administration, uncontested probate, simple wills, or estate planning. Many San Antonio lawyers do that work well and at a reasonable cost. We take contested matters: removal, accounting fights, breach of fiduciary duty, trust litigation, and disputes over property that has already changed hands.