Wills, Trusts, & Estate Planning

Read Civil Remedies updates, alerts, news, and legal analysis from leading lawyers and law firms:

News & Analysis as of May 25, 2013

ERISA Does Not Preempt State Court Order Requiring Beneficiary to Renounce Right to Employee’s Plan Benefits, Fourth Circuit Rules

by Katherine Lange | Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC on 3/20/2013

The scenario is not difficult to imagine: An employee designates her spouse as the primary beneficiary under her employer’s life insurance and retirement benefit plans. Years later, the couple divorces, and in the marital...more

Insurance Bad Faith Claims Involving a Decedent’s Estate: Pistalo v. Progressive

by Pavlack Law, LLC on 12/28/2012

This week's article focuses upon the recent Indiana Court of Appeals decision Pistalo v. Progressive in which the court held that a bad faith claim against an insurance company could progress even though the policy holder had...more

Does a trust beneficiary incur any personal liability?

by Charles E. Rounds, Jr. on 7/1/2012

As a general rule, one assumes no personal liability when one becomes a trust beneficiary. There are some exceptions, however. Charles E. Rounds, Jr. explains in Section 5.6 of Loring and Rounds: A Trustee’s Handbook (2012)....more

Some Proponents of Obamacare Have Been Selling Constitutional Snake Oil

by Charles E. Rounds, Jr. on 5/1/2012

In a letter to the editor of The Wall Street Journal (April 26, 2012, at A14), Charles E. Rounds, Jr. refutes the suggestion made by Prof. Alan S. Blinder of Princeton University in an April 20, 2012 op-ed in the same paper...more

McNees Insights -- Spring 2012

by McNees Wallace & Nurick LLC on 4/24/2012

In This Issue: Have You Checked Your Beneficiary Designations Recently?; Tax-Advantage Charitable Giving; and Planning and Paying for Long-term Care (Part 4 in a series: Medicaid/Medical Assistance). Excerpt from...more

California District Court Grants Summary Judgment to Life Insurer in Rescission Case

by Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP on 3/7/2012

Judge Virginia Phillips of the United States District Court, Central District of California, granted summary judgment to USAA Life Insurance Company, finding that Dr. Marshall Salkin made material misrepresentations regarding...more

Federal Court: Egregious Facts May Permit Life Policy Rescission After Expiration of Incontestability Period

by Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP on 10/21/2010

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York recently ruled on the parties’ motions for summary judgment in Settlement Funding, LLC v. AXA Equitable Life Ins. Co., No. 09 CV 8685 (HB) (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 29,...more