John Wick - What You Need To Know about the Corporate Transparency Act
Once Removed Episode 24: Expressing Goals and Intent for the Trust
Once Removed Episode 23: Naming Guardians for Minor Children
Once Removed Episode 22: Building Flexibility into the Estate Plan
Once Removed Episode 20: Helping a Beneficiary Purchase a Home
Life After Love Gone Wrong Podcast: Season 3, Episode 6 - Reshaping Your Legacy: Estate Planning After Your Divorce
Charitable Planning With Guest Stephanie Hood: Navigating Complex Rules and Traps for the Unwary
A Primer On Trusts - A Podcast with Janathan Allen
Once Removed Episode 13: It’s 5 o’Clock: Do You Know Where Your Will Is? A Lesson From Aretha Franklin
Once Removed Episode 12: SLATs and the Case of McKim vs. McKim
Once Removed Episode 11: Spousal Lifetime Access Trusts, or SLATs
Digital Planning Podcast Episode: Family Office Technology Solutions
Digital Planning Podcast Episode: The Uniform Electronic Estate Planning Documents Act
What is a self-proving affidavit?
The Importance of Beneficiary Designations
Taking the Sting Out of Death Taxes with Dylan Metzner, Jones & Keller
Basics of Estate Planning
The Case of the Disappearing Trust
Protecting Your Estate Plan from Challenges: No-Contest Clause Explained
The Secret Child
PHL Variable Insurance Company (PHL) and its subsidiaries, Concord Re, Inc. and Palisado Re, Inc., have been placed into rehabilitation as of May 20, by order of the Superior Court of the State of Connecticut, Judicial...more
As of April 1, 2024, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has implemented significant changes to its insurance coverage limits, particularly affecting trust accounts. These adjustments aim to simplify coverage...more
Pension risk transfers (“PRTs”) continue to make the news. And well they should. Last year alone, over $100 billion in liabilities were transferred from defined benefit pension plans to insurance companies. And the trend...more
Isn’t it interesting that success is built into business succession. Still, most US companies do not have a business succession plan in place. What is business succession planning and how does it enhance your own success and...more
As described in our previous client memo in May 2022, the FDIC is amending its regulations governing deposit insurance to merge the revocable and irrevocable trust deposit insurance categories into one “trust accounts”...more
Since the introduction of the Insurance Act in 1979, the Cayman Islands has established itself as one of the largest, and most sophisticated, centres for international insurance business. As of the first quarter of 2023, the...more
Eastern District Finds That Insurer’s Delay In Disclaiming After Insured Gave Notice Of Occurrence Precluded Insurer’s Reliance Upon Exclusions Two employees of Extreme Residential Corp. were involved in a construction...more
Like many television shows that involve some kind of legal issue, the Apple TV+ dramedy, Bad Sisters, has a plot point that is inconsistent with most U.S. state laws. The show revolves around the death of John Paul “JP”...more
This month’s Friday Five addresses cases considering: (1) whether monetary relief in the amount of lost benefits is an available remedy for breach of fiduciary duty; (2) the validity of an ex-spouse’s beneficiary designation...more
In 2012, the California Legislature enacted changes to the California Insurance Code that provide protections intended to shield consumers from losing life insurance coverage due to late or missed insurance premium...more
In a surprising move, the Arkansas General Assembly overrode long-standing Arkansas common law that permits an insured to change a beneficiary of an insurance policy via will. On April 26, 2021, Governor Asa Hutchison signed...more
In a March 9, 2021 opinion, the Maryland Court of Appeals signaled the end of what it termed “an elaborate web of procedural history” by answering two questions certified to it by the United States District Court for the...more
Loan Regime Method of Split Dollar Life Insurance - This webinar covers: What is Split Dollar? Loan Method versus Economic Benefit. Leverage Split Dollar Rollout. Planning examples using Split Dollar....more
An employer learned the full cost of ambiguity when a Connecticut federal district court agreed with an employee’s widow that the word “maximum” was ambiguous in the company’s life insurance plan, thus making the widow...more
Recently, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in Lindenberg v. Jackson Nat’l Life Ins. Co., 912 F.3d 348 (6th Cir. 2018), ruled that a plaintiff may recover both bad faith damages and punitive damages...more
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is increasing the amount taxpayers can deduct from their 2019 income as a result of buying long-term care insurance. Premiums for "qualified" long-term care insurance policies (see...more
In Naidoo v Discovery Life Limited & others (202/20170) ZASCA 88 (31 May 2018) the Supreme Court of Appeal was faced with the main task of determining whether a risk-only policy with a beneficiary clause constitutes an asset...more
Your ex-spouse may take under your life insurance policy if you do not change your beneficiaries and there’s nothing a California probate court can do about it. So ruled the Court of Appeal last month in Estate of Post...more
In Sveen v. Melin (No. 16-1432, filed June 11, 2018) (“Sveen”), the United States Supreme Court held that a statute which automatically revoked life insurance beneficiary designations following the policyholder’s divorce did...more
On March 13, 2018, the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals held that an insurance company can pay the proceeds of a life insurance policy into the court when there is a dispute as to who is the rightful beneficiary. At...more
On January 26 – in its first-issued circular letter of the year – the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) reminded life insurers doing business in the state that they can only contest claims following the death of...more
On October 12, 2016, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, in an opinion authored by Judge Richard Posner, affirmed a district court decision finding that securities intermediary U.S. Bank, N.A. is...more
I often meet with clients who have established an irrevocable trust or are beneficiaries of an irrevocable trust established by a deceased family member. Usually, these clients believe that the terms governing these trusts...more
Introduction - This article discusses a significant change in Florida law regarding the effect of dissolution or annulment of marriage on designations of one former spouse as beneficiary upon death of the insured other...more
A Kentucky state trial court has rejected a challenge to a state statute requiring life insurers to search the Social Security Administration Death Master File (DMF) and attempt to locate potential beneficiaries, holding that...more