Gayle Guyardo claims lawyers botched dad’s multimillion dollar estate

WFLA personality Gayle Guyardo is going to court, claiming attorneys may have cost her a stake in her late father’s $2.3 million home.

Born Gayle Ann Guagliardo, the 51-year-old Guyardo has been an on-air personality at WFLA-TV for more than 25 years. She currently co-anchors News Channel 8 Today morning show from 4:30 a.m. to 7:30 a.m.

Guyardo has children with current husband Mark Pichowski, as well as two daughters — co-plaintiffs Kathryny Dolly Boushall and Lindsay Ann Boushall — with ex-husband Forrest Boushall.

Her father, Joseph L. Guagliardo, died at age 85 on July 8, 2016, at his Davis Islands home.

When Joseph Guagliardo began planning his estate, Randell McKinney Miller helped him create a vehicle for transferring his wealth to the next generations: The Joseph L. Guagliardo Revocable Trust. At the time, Miller, now 67, was an attorney with Hines Norman Hines, an estate-planning law firm based in Tampa.

Most recent Florida Bar records indicate Miller’s license is not eligible to practice law in Florida.

According to the June 28 court filing in Hillsborough County, Joseph Guagliardo consulted with Miller and HNH lawyers in 2000 about “certain changes he wished to make regarding his estate planning and testamentary intentions. To effectuate those intentions, Miller and lawyers at HNH prepared and advised Guagliardo to execute a Last Will and Testament and an Amended and Restated Revocable Trust Agreement.”

Miller allegedly advised Guagliardo that he should deed his longtime marital home — a Davis Islands property located at 557 Riviera Dr., Tampa — to the Trust. When Guagliardo consented, a deed was created and filed July 19, 2002.

Among those intended to benefit from the move were Guyardo and her two oldest daughters.

But when Guagliardo died, Guyardo learned that the deed transferring her late father’s marital home to the Trust was fatally flawed. She claims Miller failed to secure a written waiver from Guagliardo’s wife, Joann, relinquishing any homestead interest in the property.

As a result, Guyardo and her daughters allegedly lost their stake in the home, now estimated at $2.3-million.

Guyardo and her daughters are accusing Miller and his successors of malpractice.

Also named in the suit are Judy Madonna Roach Karniewicz, the managing partner of Karniewicz Law Group. Earlier in her career, she also worked at Hines Norman Hines. Co-defendant Mark Lenny Mohammed is a licensed attorney with the Mark L. Mohammed Law Group.

The lawsuit doesn’t explain what happened to the home at 557 Riviera Drive, nor whether she and her daughters maintained any interest in it.

In 2017, Guyardo acquired a Davis Islands home — located across the street from her father’s property — currently valued at $3.8-million.