“No-Contest” Clause
Arizona’s intestate laws of succession determine who your heirs are if you do not create a will. Your intestate heirs may be disappointed if their inheritance through your will or trust is less than what their intestate share would have been. An heir in a case like this could be motivated to contest the validity […]
November Wrap-Up: Matthew Perry’s ‘Friends’ Residuals
Turkey Day is done and the Black Friday sales are (sort of) over. The only thing left to do in November is update you on Matthew Perry’s estate and guardianship and conservatorship news. The One with Matthew Perry’s Residuals Matthew Perry tragically passed away at his home in late October. The star was best known […]
Health, Education, Maintenance and Suppport (HEMS)
A common issue in estate planning is the desire to make gifts to loved ones on government benefits without reducing those benefits. A special needs trust (SNT) with a health, education, maintenance and support (HEMS) standard can be a solution. A SNT can be a great tool to help provide for a beneficiary on public […]
Keeping your home in the family — forever
Clients often tell us they want to keep their home in the family. Often they tell us that they want to make sure that their offspring will always have a place to live. Sometimes they worry about one child’s ability to afford a home, but want to be “fair” to other children. Or they expand […]
Foreign marriages and other multinational estate planning issues
With the rise of globalization, multinational families are becoming more and more common. When family members reside or own property in more than one country, unexpected issues could arise in your estate planning or probate. For example, just last month, there was a Guam Supreme Court decision interpreting the effect of a Guam divorce on […]
October review: mysterious wills, celebrity estate plans and probate
We’re nearing the end of October, which means it’s almost Halloween. To be on theme, we tried to keep this newsletter spooky with stories of mysterious wills, lessons from celebrity estate plans, and the scariest topic of all– probate. Mystery Millionaires One story that caught our eye this month was the story of Joseph Stanack, […]
Are there benefits to the probate process?
You’ve probably heard about the horrors of probate. It’s time consuming, expensive, and invasive. While the process does have it’s shortcomings (although these may not be as bad as you think), there are benefits to probate too. Just so we’re all on the same page- probate is the legal process for distributing a person’s assets […]
Failure To Act Can Be a Breach of Fiduciary Duty
In 2012, New York County Surrogates Court released their opinion for JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A. v. Marie H. This case is now a decade old. Unlike most of the stories we relate here, it is not an appellate decision. But it still teaches us important lessons about fiduciary duty and the importance of selecting the […]
What Should be In Your Annual Guardianship Report?
If you have been named guardian of an incapacitated adult in Arizona, you need to file an annual guardianship report. A guardianship refers to the legal process utilized when a person can no longer make or communicate safe or sound decisions. When that scenario arises, the court appoints a “guardian” to make decisions and protect […]
Step-up in Basis and the IRS’s New Revenue Ruling 2023-2
In March of this year, the IRS issued Revenue Ruling 2023-2. This ruling provides clarity on how assets are treated when you transfer them into an irrevocable trust. The ruling basically says that when an asset is transferred into an irrevocable trust during the owners lifetime (and removed from the owner’s estate), that asset will […]
