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IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF IOWA No. 7-765 / 07-0531 Filed December 28, 2007

IN THE MATTER OF THE ESTATES OF LOREN S. BOCKWOLDT, Deceased, and TAMMY R. BOCKWOLDT, Deceased, DALE RICHARD WILLOWS, Conservator for Brandie Renee Bockwoldt, the minor child of the Decedents, and Co-Executor for the Estates of Loren and Tammy Bockwoldt. ________________________________________________________________

Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Muscatine County, Patrick J. Madden, Judge.

The conservator for the minor child of the decedents and co-executor of the decedents' estates appeals the district court's order ruling on various estate administration matters. REMANDED. AFFIRMED IN PART, REVERSED IN PART, AND

Timothy L. Baumann and Christopher Surls of Wm. B. Norton Law Firm, P.C., Lowden, for appellant Dale Richard Willows. Thomas Reidel of Conway & Reidel, P.C., Muscatine, for appellee Estate of Tammy R. Bockwoldt. Pete Wessels of Wessels & Stojan, P.C., Rock Island, Illinois, for appellee Estate of Loren S. Bockwoldt.

2 Eric Knoernschild, Muscatine, for Pete Wessels. Brock Bockwoldt, Zion, Illinois, pro se. Eric Syverud, Davenport, for Brandie Renee Bockwoldt.

Heard by Huitink, P.J., Vogel, J., and Robinson, S.J.,* but decided by Huitink, P.J., Vogel and Mahan, JJ., and Robinson, S.J.
*Senior judge assigned by order pursuant to Iowa Code section 602.9206 (2007)

3 PER CURIAM Dale Willows, conservator for the minor child of the decedents and coexecutor of the decedents' estates, appeals the district court's ruling awarding attorney fees to the attorney for the executors of the estates, requiring any recovery from the wrongful death suit ongoing in Arizona to be distributed according to Iowa law, removing the co-executors of the estates, and failing to remove the attorney for the executors of the estates. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand. I. Background Facts and Proceedings

Loren and Tammy Bockwoldt, husband and wife, were killed in a car accident in Arizona on March 12, 2005. They left behind a minor child, Brandie Bockwoldt and Loren's adult son, Brock Bockwoldt, who resides in Illinois. Loren and Tammy were both Iowa residents. Brandie is a beneficiary of both estates. Brock is a beneficiary of Loren's estate only. On April 7, 2005, the court appointed three co-executors to both Loren's and Tammy's estates--(1) Dale Richard Willows, Tammy's brother; (2) Neal Bockwoldt, Loren's brother; and (3) Brock. The co-executors designated Willows was also

attorney Pete Wessels as their attorney in both estates. appointed as conservator for Brandie.

Wessels filed a report and inventory in each estate on July 11, 2005. The reports valued Loren's estate at $190,052.41 and Tammy's estate at $70,740.03. No supplemental reports have been filed. However, in Wessel's application for attorney fees filed February 8, 2007, he states the Bockwoldt estates' gross assets total $1,704,429.13. The large increase is attributable to the discovery of

4 numerous life insurance policies on the couple's lives. In addition, in December 2006 each estate received $200,000 from an underinsured insurance policy of the decedents'. In his application for attorney fees, Wessels requested fees in the amount of $66,404.50 plus $640.50 in expenses for Loren's estate and $5,802.00 plus $86.50 in expenses for Tammy's estate. Willows, in his capacities as both coexecutor of the estates and conservator of Brandie, resisted the application for attorney's fees. The district court granted the request for attorney's fees without specifying ordinary and extraordinary fees. On January 18, 2007, Wessels filed a motion for appointment of corporate executors alleging conflicts among the co-executors. Willows filed a resistance to the motion on February 12, 2007. The district court appointed corporate

executors to the estates, removing Brock and Willows as co-executors because of "current and potential conflicts of interest." Neal subsequently withdrew as coexecutor of the estates. Further, the district court refused to close the estates due to unfinished estate matters and the possibility of a recovery from the ongoing wrongful death suit in Arizona. The district court ruled that, for the time being, any recovery be divided equally between the estates. At the hearing regarding whether to close the estates, the parties offered few legal arguments regarding the division of the wrongful death proceeds. The attorneys were unable to inform the court whether the suit was brought in the names of the children or the estates. The court's ruling left the door open for further argument on the issue if and when a recovery was made.

5 On February 26, 2007, Willows filed a motion asking the court to reconsider its ruling. Willows attached the online printout from the Arizona courts public access website which lists Brock and "restricted" as the plaintiffs in the suit. Willows asserts that Brandie's name is listed as restricted because she is a minor. The document does not list the estates as parties. In addition, the motion cited both Iowa and Arizona law in making its argument that the wrongful death proceeds should be distributed according to Arizona law. The court denied his motion the same day. Willows appeals. The estates (appellees) respond. II. Standard of Review

A district court's allowance of attorney fees, removal of fiduciaries, and direction for distribution of funds are all tried in equity. Iowa Code

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