Judge Appoints Trustee for Former Alabama Secretary of State's Regions-Managed Trust Fund

A Montgomery County circuit judge has appointed a temporary special fiduciary to oversee the charitable trust of a former Alabama secretary of state, which is currently under legal scrutiny.

On Thursday, Circuit Judge Greg Griffin named James C. White Sr. of Birmingham as the temporary overseer of the Mabel Amos Memorial Fund. This appointment is pending a decision on whether to remove Regions Financial as the trust's manager.

White has been granted 90 days to review the trust's records, conduct an audit of all disbursements, and report back to the court. His assessment will also include determining whether the trustee fees collected by Regions represent a “serious breach of trust,” according to the 10-page court order.

This development follows the Alabama Supreme Court’s June ruling, which ended an investigation into alleged mismanagement of the trust. The court, in an 8-0 decision with Justice Greg Cook recusing himself, vacated a lower court's November 2023 order to refer the case to a special master, stating it had “exceeded (the lower court’s) discretion.”

The lawsuit, filed in 2022 by members of Mabel Amos' family, alleges that Regions, while managing the charitable trust named after the former Alabama Secretary of State, charged exorbitant fees and improperly directed scholarship funds to the children of trust board members. Amos passed away in 1999.

The suit claims that the trustees personally benefited by using trust funds to pay for their children’s education at expensive out-of-state colleges, despite the lack of financial need, while members of Amos' immediate family, who were in financial need, were overlooked.

According to the lawsuit, Regions began charging “outrageous” fees after oil was discovered on Amos’ property, in contrast to the more “reasonable” fees charged when only natural gas wells were present. For instance, the suit alleges that Regions received approximately $7,000 in 2010 for five hours of weekly trust administration. A year later, those same hours reportedly cost $92,736. Between 2002 and 2018, the trust allegedly paid over $1 million in administration fees to Regions.

Meanwhile, the oil and gas wells have reportedly produced between $70 million to $80 million in revenue, or roughly 100 barrels of oil per day, along with millions of cubic feet of natural gas. The lawsuit seeks to remove the current trustee and board members and to restore “misappropriated” assets to the fund.

Jeremy King, a spokesperson for Regions, stated, "Due to the pending nature of this matter, we have no further comment beyond our public court filings. We remain focused on addressing and resolving this matter through the proper venue, which is the legal system."

In his order, Judge Griffin cited trust tax filings indicating that the children of Alabama Ethics Commission Executive Director Tom Albritton reportedly received $135,000 from the trust while he served as a trustee, which Griffin said “clearly violated the Trust’s prohibition on private inurement and self-dealing on the part of the trustees.”

Griffin also mentioned that the children and grandchildren of “staff members of the trustees’ law firm,” “the child of a former partner and judge before whom the trustees practiced law,” and “the children of wealthy clients of their law firm” received scholarship funds. However, Griffin noted that the total amount of money received by these individuals is “not currently ascertainable” as these details have not been disclosed in tax filings.