Read Wills, Trusts, & Estate Planning updates, articles, and legal commentary from leading lawyers and law firms:
Widow Foreclosure Catch-22
The 2010 Tax Relief Act and your estate plan
Are your estate planning documents protecting your assets?
Same-Sex Marriage Cases in 90 Seconds
Should you Opt-Out of the Voluntary Disclosure Program?
Death and Foreign Asset Disclosure. What you don't know can cost you…a lot
Safeguard Your MVA: Devising a Business Succession Plan that will Preserve your Most Valuable Asset
Planning for Your Social Media Accounts When You Die
Divorce can be costly, especially when it reveals undisclosed foreign assets.
Estate Planning: Wills, Trusts, & Power of Attorney in Arizona - Putting Family First
Foreign Asset Disclosure Program
The Basics of the Fiscal Cliff Deal & Why the Lack of Sunset Provisions Is Important
Litigating disputes in probate matters is just as expensive and time-consuming as litigation in other types of cases. However, because most probate lawyers do not handle contested matters in probate courts on a regular basis,...more
In Kleveland v. Siegel & Wolensky LLP, 2013 DAR 4961(2013) the California Courts of Appeal for the Fourth Appellate District affirmed the denial of a special motion to strike and the award of costs and attorney fees as...more
This modified excerpt from Loring and Rounds: A Trustee’s Handbook (2013) is a primer on the wrong of Unjust Enrichment and its principal remedy, Restitution. Unjust enrichment doctrine is very much alive and well in the real...more
An “in terrorem” or “no-contest” clause in a trust instrument provides for the forfeiture or reduction of the equitable property interest of a beneficiary who contests the arrangement. In a recent New Hampshire case, Shelton,...more
Offshore asset protection trusts (OAPT) typically have the following characteristics: (1) the trust is governed by the laws of a foreign jurisdiction that does not recognize the judgments or orders of courts of the United...more
In Roberts v. Wilson, the El Paso Court of Appeals ruled that the wife of a beneficiary under a will was entitled to her husband’s interest in real property because he survived his parents and the bequeath did not have a...more
The trustee's primary allegiance is to the beneficiary, not to the non-beneficiary spouse or ex-spouse, unless the express terms of the trust provide otherwise. Thus, when there is marital discord, the trustee must suppress...more
If a party is unhappy with the trial court's application of the law to the facts presented during an orphans' court matter, can the unhappy party bypass the exceptions process and go directly to the appellate courts?...more
“In probate court, nothing speaks more eloquently or provides more insight into factual and legal issues than an accounting.” Christie v. Kimball (2d Civil No. B230286, January 26, 2012). Under Probate Code...more
We complete our preview of the new civil review grants at the Illinois Supreme Court with DeHart v. DeHart [pdf], a will contest which raises a range of issues from how do you prove lack of testamentary capacity, to undue...more
The California Court of Appeal (Fourth Appellate District, Division 3) recently held that an attorney can be a joint tortfeasor with his or her client for purposes of California Code of Civil Procedure section 877. The...more
Earlier today, we previewed Bjork v. O'Meara, a case about the perils of challenging a will too late. Now we preview a case about timing your claim for attorneys fees: Rodriquez v. Department of Financial and Professional...more
The California Court of Appeal (Second Appellate District, Division 3) reversed a trial court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of a defendant law firm after concluding that the action was not time-barred by the running of...more
The Problem: Practitioners, and occasionally even some courts, will refer to assets as being “owned” by a trust, or will say that someone is “suing” the trust. This likely arises from the fact that proper designation often...more
The Problem: So often a family member or friend is told by a Decedent that he will inherit some or all of an estate. The Decedent truly has that intention, but as he or she ages and becomes weak of mind, the Decedent is...more
In Lin v. Jeng, 2012 DJDAR 2498 (2012), the California Court of Appeal for the Second Appellate District rendered a fee award based on equitable principles in a partition action involving a real estate dispute between family...more
About one-third of all Americans—through birth, divorce, and remarriage—are part of a stepfamily. But many of the laws governing familial relationships have lagged far behind this reality. A good example...more
When the assets of an estate are endangered by delay in its administration, the court has a general power to make a limited grant of administration in order to preserve assets of the deceased within the jurisdiction without...more
In This Issue: - July Interest Rates for GRATs, Sales to Defective Grantor Trusts, Intra-Family Loans and Split Interest Charitable Trusts - Malpractice claim against an estate was too uncertain to be deductible as...more
We have recently seen some potentially significant Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) decisions in Texas in the last few months which may be of interest to our financial institution clients. We have given a brief synopsis of these...more
In a significant decision this summer, Schneider v. Finmann, 15 NY3d 306 (2010), the Court of Appeals loosened the privity requirements in legal malpractice actions. Specifically, in Schneider, the Court of Appeals held for...more
In Bluebird Partners, L.P. v. Bank of New York, Index No. 1996-601016, 2010 NY Slip Op 31407(U) (Sup Ct, NY County, June 7, 2010), Justice Eileen Bransten of the New York Commercial Division, granted a summary judgment motion...more
PETITION TO DETERMINE VALIDITY OF PURPORTED TRUST AMENDMENT; SUSPEND AND REMOVE CO-TRUSTEES AND APPOINTMENT OF SUCCESSOR TRUSTEE; FOR OTHER RELIEF FOR BREACH OF TRUST; FOR AN ACCOUNTING; FOR INSTRUCTIONS [PROBATE CODE...more
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