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
Gray divorce, or divorce among older adults, is becoming increasingly common. This demographic trend reflects societal changes, including reduced stigma around divorce and increased financial independence for women. However,...more
Unknown to many Floridians, Florida enacted the Community Property Trust Act which went into effect on July 1, 2021, and established the ability to convert non-community property into community property. The community...more
In Michigan, the process for an individual to take their spouse’s last name is fairly simple, but does require taking action with both the Social Security Administration (SSA) and Michigan Secretary of State. The first...more
When I first read the precedential ruling of the Pennsylvania Superior Court in Shell v. Shell, I really didn’t find it noteworthy enough to write about. This is a case where a spouse discovered that her husband was moving...more
The answer to this question is: it depends. In general, all assets in either party’s name or in which either party has a beneficial interest at the time of the divorce are subject to division in the overall division of...more
After a party completes their divorce, there are often many things that they need to do to finalize matters. However, one item that many overlook is changing their beneficiary designations after divorce to remove their...more
Estate planning can be complicated enough when you don’t have a spouse. But things can get even trickier for married couples. Although you and your spouse may have agreed on most major issues in the past — such as child...more
In In re Estate of Wetzel, a widow and independent administrator of her husband’s estate appealed a trial court’s order denying her requested family allowance. No. 05-20-01104-CV, 2022 Tex. App. LEXIS 2618 (Tex. App.—Dallas...more
October 2021 Interest Rates for GRATs, Sales to Defective Grantor Trusts, Intra-Family Loans and Split Interest Charitable Trusts - Federal interest rates increased slightly for October of 2021. The October applicable...more
In the early stages of this blog, I reviewed and discussed several ways that we could “Learn from Famous Mistakes,” such as failing to update an estate plan post-divorce and dying while in the midst of divorce proceedings....more
So you’ve received an inheritance and you’re married. The person who left you the inheritance probably intended for it to benefit you, not your spouse, if you get divorced. How do you protect the inheritance?...more
After creating and implementing a plan for your estate, it is important to regularly revisit your plan to ensure that it is still reflective of your values and goals for passing along your legacy. Seemingly small changes in...more
Your divorce has just been finalized. Now what? Depending on the assets divided, there may be a number of steps that you have to take to implement the terms of your divorce. While your attorney likely provided some guidance...more
Trusts and Estates Attorney Alexis Gruttadauria joins host and Litigation Partner Rich Schoenstein to discuss “Why You Need an Estate Plan” on the latest episode of Law Brief. Lexi and Rich delve into the legal disposition of...more
As you know from my prior posts, I appreciate the interplay between divorce and estate planning. I enjoy working on cases where both worlds collide, and have been fortunate to be involved in some very interesting cases, which...more
Transferring assets into trust for the benefit of children or others is a common estate planning tool. The party making the transfer into a trust gives up any right to control the property or its distribution....more
Stepmothers are frequent characters in California trust and estate litigation, as they are in fairy tales and Disney movies. With about half of all marriages ending in divorce, there are many stepmother/stepchild...more
Divorce and remarriage are common in the United States, and most legal professionals place these issues squarely within the family law realm. However, people who remarry should also carefully revisit their estate plan...more
The last several weeks have brought us two decisions in which issues of family law intersected with T&E issues. First, the decision in Heystek v. Duncan, Case No. 15-P-1201, 2016 Mass. App. Unpub. LEXIS 1113 (Nov. 21,...more