Decades ago, local real estate mogul Max M. Farash put a few of his not-inconsiderable assets into a trust fund to benefit his wife, Marian M. Farash.
Under their arrangement, assets that remained in the trust when Marian died would go to their only child, daughter Lynn.
Yet more than two years after Marian Farash passed away, Lynn Farash hasn't seen a penny of the $2.2 million that remained in her mother's trust fund — and now a local judge is being asked to decide whether she should receive the money at all.
The alternative view is the funds should go into a separate trust that ultimately would disburse a part of the funds to the family charitable foundation, which could eventually become the largest such foundation in the Rochester area's history.
Arguments in the case, expected later this fall before state Supreme Court Justice John Ark, are the latest link in a long chain of legal skirmishes growing out of the costly and sometimes-contentious guardianship of Max and Marian Farash. On Friday came news that Farash's grandnephew, to whom he had entrusted the presidency of his property management company, has been arrested on charges that he stole thousands of dollars from the firm.
Max. M. Farash, now 96 and living in a Webster nursing home, was declared mentally incapacitated in April 2007 by a different Supreme Court judge.
Farash's fortune, estimated to be as large as $500 million, is now guided by a court-appointed property guardian, James C. Gocker. The Rochester lawyer also was property guardian to Marian Farash until her death at age 89 in July 2007.
Gocker has near-total control over Farash assets, which include about 5,000 apartment and townhouse units in the Rochester area and Florida. Since his appointment, Gocker has cataloged and reorganized Farash's holdings, revamped the family foundation and the Farash Corp. and investigated unspecified financial irregularities alleged to have occurred before his appointment.
For that work, Gocker and several lawyers, accountants and others who have advised him had been paid more than $3.1 million from Farash's funds through May of this year, according to court records.
Full Article and Source:
Farash Daughter Fighting for Her Inheritance
See also:
Farash daughter wins case
Guardian Versus Family
Guardianship Cost $1 Million
Outrageous Guardianship Fees
$3.1 million? Geez! Maybe I should become a guardian.
ReplyDeleteIf the mother is deceased, shouldn't her estate have been probated and disbursed?
ReplyDeleteWhat is Gocker doing with that money?
And what right do they have to alter a trust?
Glocker is churning fees. The more Lynn Farash fights for what's rightfully hers, the more Glocker makes.
ReplyDeleteThe judge needs to put a stop to this madness.
If Max Farash intended to leave the real property to his daughter, how dare the State move in and take it?
ReplyDeleteWards of the State, according to law, but does the State own them?
This is ridiculous. Before it's over, Lynn Farash will have spent the money that is rightfully hers - just trying to get it.
ReplyDeleteThe judge should order a full review of the Farash file - especially anything that Glocker has done.
aaaahhhh crooks the smell of organized crime under color of law sort of like napalm in the morning in viet nam these guardianship estate mobsters are having one hell of a big expensive laugh doesn't that just warm your heart pay to play and worse
ReplyDeleteHere's the thing: If Max Farash knew what was going on, he'd have a fit.
ReplyDeleteGocker knows that; the court knows it.
But, they also know that Max Farash can't speak up for himself. He'd be mad that his efforts wishes on this trust are being ignored by the court and his daughter is getting ripped off.
Of course, they wouldn't even think of doing that to him if he weren't vulnerable....
Gocker should be investigated down to every cent he spent or caused to be spent.
ReplyDeleteIf he were truly acting in Max Farash's best interest, he'd follow the instructions of the trust set up by Max Farash.
THE MONEY BELONGS TO MAX FARASH, not Gocker.
Give Lynn Farah what her Father wants her to have, Gocker.