Fiduciary Forensics: Trust Accountings, Surcharge, and Elder Financial Exploitation

Matthew A. Bourque, Managing Partner | RMO,LLP

Matthew A. Bourque serves as Managing Partner of RMO LLP’s Dallas and Houston offices. A thoughtful, diligent litigator, Matthew focuses his practice on representing heirs, beneficiaries, fiduciaries, creditors, and other interested parties in contested probate, trust, guardianship, and financial elder abuse cases. As supported by his accomplished track record, he is able to calmly and expertly handle the most tumultuous situations with relative ease while securing results for his clients that allow them to move past their dispute and on with their lives. Matthew primarily handles probate litigation matters including will contests, fiduciary litigation to recover misfunded, misapplied, or misappropriated estate and trust funds, community property claims, executor and trustee removal proceedings, compelled distribution of estate and trust assets, trust accounting lawsuits, competing applications for guardianship, and establishment of common-law marriage and adoption-by-estoppel. He also has significant experience handling commercial litigation incidental to probate matters.

• Education & Credentials

Matthew received his Juris Doctor from Boston University School of Law, with a concentration in litigation and dispute resolution. He graduated magna cum laude from The George Washington University, where he majored in Political Science with a minor in Spanish. He is a member of the State Bar of Texas and is admitted to practice before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

• Recognition & Leadership

Matthew has been recognized as a Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch honoree in Trusts and Estates Litigation for 2025–2026, and was named to the Lawdragon 500 X – The Next Generation list in 2025. He was elevated to Managing Partner of RMO LLP’s Dallas and Houston offices, and has been featured as an interviewee on KHOU 11’s VERIFY segment and KERA News.

• Professional Involvement

Matthew serves as a Board Member of the Probate Section of the Collin County Bar Association and as a Branch Committee Member of STEP Texas. He is a member of the Society of Trust & Estate Practitioners, the Trusts and Estates Section of the Dallas Bar Association, the Dallas Estate Planning Council, and the Independent Trustee Alliance, and serves as an Executive Committee Member of ProVisors.

• Experience

Matthew’s representative matters reflect the full range of contested trust, estate, and guardianship disputes. He prevailed at trial for clients whose stepmother procured an invalid will from their dementia-stricken father, securing findings of bad faith that prevented her from recovering attorney’s fees from the estate. He obtained an emergency guardianship order for a client whose brother planned to relocate their incapacitated father to an unsafe environment, removed an executor who stole several hundred thousand dollars in estate funds while preserving the remainder for national charity clients, and secured injunctive relief requiring the return of $2,000,000 in unlawfully distributed estate funds. He has defended an elderly client against a guardianship proceeding orchestrated by her son-in-law, protected a client’s six-figure inheritance against contesting relatives, exonerated a trustee falsely accused of mismanagement, and won a judgment invalidating a ladybird deed to restore a widower’s homestead rights. His appellate work includes Williams v. Tanner (Tex. App.—Dallas 2023), Golfis v. Houillion (Tex. App.—Dallas 2016 and 2014), Transitional Entity, LP v. Elder Care, LP (Tex. App.—Dallas 2016), and Sherrill v. Williams (Tex. App.—Dallas 2015).

Scott E. Rahn, Founding Partner | RMO,LLP

Scott E. Rahn is the founding partner of RMO LLP, a California attorney who has focused his practice exclusively on contentious trust, estate, and conservatorship litigation. Since launching RMO LLP in 2015, Scott has represented heirs, beneficiaries, individual and professional trustees, executors, and conservators in complex probate and fiduciary disputes throughout California. His practice spans a wide range of contested matters, including trust and will contests, breach of fiduciary duty claims, undue influence allegations, capacity issues, and financial elder abuse cases, and he frequently litigates matters involving complex financial, accounting, and estate planning-related issues. Driven by a commitment to provide relief to people grieving the loss of a loved one, Scott collaborates closely with clients and is known for in-depth financial investigations and for deftly handling intra-family dynamics and decades-long family friction. He regularly advises professionals on litigation risk, fiduciary compliance, and dispute avoidance, and while he customizes strategies to the unique needs of each client and case, his overall goal is to achieve the best results as quickly as possible for the least legal spend possible, guiding clients forward so they can move on with their lives. A recognized leader in trust and estate litigation, Scott is a frequent speaker and presenter for legal, fiduciary, and professional organizations across California, nationally, and internationally, and is widely regarded for his practical insight into how fiduciary disputes arise and how they can be effectively managed or avoided.

• Education & Credentials

Scott earned his Juris Doctor from the University of San Diego School of Law and holds a BA in Spanish & International Latin American Relations from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is admitted to practice as a member of the State Bar of California, the District of Columbia Bar, and the State Bar of Texas.

• Recognition & Leadership

Scott has been consistently recognized for his work in trust and estate litigation by Chambers & Partners, Best Lawyers in America, and Super Lawyers. His effective solutions to the most fraught trust and estate fights have earned him recognition as “Trusts and Estates Litigator of the Year” from the Century City Bar Association, as well as honors from and features in Vanity Fair, Super Lawyers magazine, the Los Angeles Business Journal, and the National Law Journal. He has been named a “Top Estate & Wealth Management Lawyer” by the Daily Journal (Los Angeles, 2025), a “Leading Litigator in America” by Lawdragon (2025), and a Daily Journal Top 100 Lawyer (2024). His recognitions include Best Lawyers in America for Trusts and Estates & Litigation – Trusts and Estates (2018–2026); Chambers & Partners’ High Net Worth Guide for Private Wealth Disputes (2021–2025); Super Lawyers’ “Top 100 – Trust and Estate Litigation” (Southern California, 2017–2026); “Top Litigator” from the Los Angeles Business Journal’s Leaders of Influence: Litigators & Trial Lawyers (2020–2025); “Legal Visionary” from the Los Angeles Times (2021–2023); Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Private Companies in America; Pasadena Top Attorneys 2024 (Pasadena Magazine); “Leaders of Influence: Thriving in Their 40s” (Los Angeles Business Journal, 2021); “Super Lawyer” recognition (Southern California, 2014–2026, and “Rising Star” since 2006); “Elite Boutique Trailblazer” (National Law Journal); an AV Preeminent® 5 out of 5 rating by Martindale-Hubbell; a “Superb 10” rating by Avvo; and “West Trailblazer” from The American Lawyer (2022). He is also President Emeritus of the Beverly Hills Estate Planning Council.

• Professional Involvement

Scott is a member of the STEP Contentious Trusts and Estates Global SIG Steering Committee and President Emeritus of the Beverly Hills Estate Planning Council. He serves on the Publications Committee of the National Association of Estate Planners & Councils and is a Speaker/Member of the Beverly Hills Bar Association – Trusts and Estates Section, Private Client Global Elite, and the Society of Tax and Estate Planning Professionals (STEP) – Contentious Trusts and Estates Special Interest Group. He is a member of the Los Angeles County Bar Association – Trusts & Estates Section, the California Lawyers Association, the Professional Fiduciary Association of California, the Independent Trustee Alliance, ProVisors, and the University of Wisconsin Alumni Association. He is a speaker for the California Society of CPAs, the Fiduciary Round Table of the San Gabriel Valley, and the Trusts and Estates Sections of the San Fernando Valley Bar Association, South Bay Bar Association, San Luis Obispo Bar Association, and Ventura County Bar Association, as well as the Woodland Hills Trust and Estate Planning Council. He is also a former Board Member of the California Alzheimer’s Association, Southland Chapter.

• Experience

Scott has protected his clients’ rights in numerous parental, caregiver, and sibling disputes, will contests, and inheritance fights. His matters include securing a sizable judgment for an elderly woman whose deceased brother had been taken advantage of by an unscrupulous advisor; leading the investigation into a long-term, multi-million dollar fraud committed against a wealthy Middle Eastern family; defending a trustee accused of financial elder abuse and breach of fiduciary duty against her mother; and unwinding the undue influence of an interloping gardener and his caretaker wife on a 94-year-old woman to secure the family home intended for the client. He was parachuted into years-long international estate litigation to secure a favorable multinational and multijurisdictional outcome between a decedent’s estranged children and his family. Among his representative matters, he won a petition for conservatorship of the estate on an emergency basis during Covid to protect a conservatee from fraudsters who had infiltrated, isolated, defrauded, and unduly influenced her into sending them millions; secured the estate of a client’s late father who had been victimized by childhood friends who forged estate planning documents; and secured the return of a client’s home value after her daughter and son-in-law took the home under the guise of “helping” her. He neutralized a hostile co-trustee seeking to bilk a client’s trust of millions through fabricated claims; secured removal of a thieving co-trustee, including recovery of stolen assets, attorney fees, and costs; and recovered the home of an infirm, institutionalized senior victimized by an opportunistic volunteer at his care facility. Within 45 days of engagement, he secured 125% of a client’s original bequests, plus attorney’s fees and costs, after an 85-year-old decedent’s new husband manipulated trust amendments; he ended a years-long dispute over trust property between feuding siblings; recovered a disinherited beneficiary family’s full interest in a great-aunt’s estate procured through financial elder abuse during her incapacity; secured no action from regulatory authorities in an enforcement action threatening a decades-long professional’s license and career; and secured, on behalf of a court-appointed guardian ad litem, a prosecution agreement leading to the permanent bar of a financial advisor who had taken advantage of an institutionalized dementia patient.

SESSION 1 – Challenging and Defending Trust and Estate Accountings in Surcharge | 1:00pm – 2:00pm

Covers the full litigation lifecycle—objection mechanics, burden-of-proof rules, damages calculation, exculpatory clause analysis, and the prudent investor surcharge.

BREAK | 2:00pm – 2:10pm

SESSION 2 – Proving Financial Exploitation and Undue Influence of Elder Clients | 2:10pm – 3:10pm

Equips attorneys with legal frameworks, evidentiary tools, and statutory remedies, including the burden-shifting presumption, power of attorney abuse, and forensic financial evidence.