An Executor’s Guide to Administering an Estate
Estate Planning 101: The Five Most Important Clauses for Wills and Trusts
Top Ten Mistakes Executors Make and How to Avoid Them
Have you been asked to be a trustee or executor? A trustee or executor has substantial financial and legal liability, and the trust or estate will pay an attorney to guide them through the process....more
Your will is meant to ensure that your final wishes are honored. However, it can sometimes be contested, potentially leading to lengthy legal battles and financial disputes among your heirs. Understanding when and why a will...more
When is the executor nominated by the decedent in a will deemed unfit to serve as executor? Rarely – but a recent decision in Surrogates Court set forth the standard and deemed the nominated executor in that case unfit to...more
Interested in trying to prepare your own estate plan? There are resources available to assist you, such as online services, computer software and how-to books. Do-it-yourself (DIY) estate planning may save you hundreds or...more
Managing your residuary estate - Even with a comprehensive estate plan, it’s likely you’ll have some assets in a residuary estate. Like the sediment at the bottom of your glass after you finish a fine wine, an estate plan...more
There are a number of considerations to make when deciding whether to proceed with a Will-based estate plan or a trust-based estate plan. First, as a general matter, there are two ways in which your estate can be distributed...more
DURING YOUR LIFE - When preparing your estate plan, it is of utmost importance to ensure that you have documents in place so your spouse or another trusted individual can make medical and financial decisions on your...more
In this episode of “Splitting Heirs,” Warren K. Racusin, partner and Chair of Lowenstein’s Trusts & Estates practice, speaks with Sharon L. Klein, EVP, President - Family Wealth, Eastern U.S. Region & Head of National Divorce...more
Winstead Shareholder David F. Johnson participated in a panel presentation entitled “When One Is Not Enough: Dividing Fiduciary Powers and Dispositions” for the State Bar of Texas’s 29th Advanced Estate Planning Strategies on...more
Offshore Trust and Estate Litigation Update Series – Part I - Trust and estate disputes in both the Cayman Islands and the BVI, and claims against the actions of a trustee/executor or disputes related to an interested...more
Forgive the title but this is written amidst the Eagles-Vikings game and on the same date as Queen Elizabeth’s funeral. Commentators noted that the Queen’s final event was more than a generation in the planning and was...more
Drew Baylor is a wildly successful athletic shoe designer for Mercury Sportwear until his world is turned askew when one of the shoes he designed is accused of having a design flaw. Mercury announces a recall; Drew becomes...more
When it comes to handling your loved one’s estate, the executor has a series of important duties and responsibilities. If you suspect an executor is mishandling their responsibilities or mismanaging estate assets, you can...more
The executor position is an important but often misunderstood role. In this webinar on estate administration, Whitney Patience O’Reilly details an executor’s duties, from locating the deceased’s will to making the final...more
The executor position is an important but often misunderstood role. In this webinar on estate administration, Whitney O’Reilly will detail an executor’s duties, from locating the deceased’s will to making the final...more
Many California trusts confer a lifetime right to income on a person (often the surviving spouse) with the remainder passing to designated survivors upon the income beneficiary’s death. When the income beneficiary dies, is it...more
In a contested estate situation, family members are mad, often fighting mad. A common client question is, “When are we going to court?” Perhaps surprisingly, our usual answer to this is, “Only when everything else has...more
A SPA trust can improve the flexibility of your estate plan - We live in uncertain times. There’s uncertainty about the economy as well as the possibility of tax increases to address the rising federal debt. For example,...more
Nobody wants their plans frustrated or ignored by their beneficiaries, the courts or even the executors and trustees left in charge. Half a dozen new and emerging processes and laws now allow fairly easy modifications to...more
If you are a US citizen and your spouse or civil partner is not you need to ensure you have appropriate estate planning in place to avoid your heirs getting an unexpected tax bill following your death. In this guide we...more
In In re Rittenmeyer, the mother of the decedent was the executor of his estate. No. 05-17-01378-CV, 2018 Tex. App. LEXIS 6647 (Tex. App.—Dallas August 22, 2018, original proceeding)....more
The discharge of an executor or trustee is the ultimate end-game of most, if not all, estate and trust administrations. Affording that kind of comfort level to the fiduciary can be accomplished in one of two ways,...more
In Coyle v. Jones, two sisters fought over the whether $197,000 belonged to their mother’s estate or to a trust. No. 05-16-00876-CV, 2017 Tex. App. LEXIS 11173 (Tex. App.—Dallas November 30, 2017, no pet. history). ...more
This summer, new federal legislation was enacted which requires executors of decedents' estates to file information statements with the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") as well as with estate beneficiaries, or face penalties....more
Texas courts narrowly construe no-contest clauses. In Di Portanova v. Monroe, grandparents set up eight trusts for a grandchild that had a mental disability. No. 01-20-01019-CV, 2012 Tex. App. LEXIS 9859 (Tex. App.—Houston...more