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The 56th Arizona Legislature is in Session. Uh-oh!

56th Arizona legislature

Here at Fleming & Curti, PLC, we’ve tried to keep track of what the 2023 Arizona legislature is up to. We monitor bills that affect our clients and the folks we advocate for, and in past years we’ve occasionally even travelled to Phoenix to testify. This year has been mostly pretty quiet — for us. […]

Supported Decision-Making in Arizona

Supported decision-making in Arizona

As we sit in a national lawyers’ meeting discussing “supported decision-making,” it seems like a good time to write about the concept for Arizona proceedings. Is there supported decision-making in Arizona? Not precisely, or at least not yet. What is supported decision-making? Long advocated as a less-intrusive process than guardianship, supported decision-making law have been […]

Can’t Find Original Will? That Might Not Be a Problem

Original will

Sometimes our clients misplace their original wills. They often worry whether that will cause a problem. Our usual answer: probably not — but it’s easy to fix. Let’s just redo your will, even if we don’t make any changes. Sometimes, though, the problem comes up after a death. Everyone “knows” where the original will is. […]

Retirement Benefits and Community Property

Retirement benefits and community property

Arizona is one of the nine U.S. states operating under the principles of “community property.” The basic premise of community property: assets acquired during the period of the marriage are presumed to belong to the marital community (and thus to the spouses equally). There are lots of qualifications and exceptions, but one issue crops up […]

What Luke Perry Taught Us About Advance Directives

advance directives

Although death sometimes arrives with plenty of warning, often there is none. Estate planning, of course, tries to provide a roadmap for both scenarios. The truth is, having an estate plan doesn’t always mean things go smoothly, and when things go smoothly, it’s not always because there was an estate plan. Take Luke Perry. After […]

“No-Contest” Clause in Trust Works Both Ways

No-contest clause in Arizona

After two of the beneficiaries of Ralph Credille’s trust challenged the actions of their brother, the trustee, he argued that they had violated the trust’s no-contest provision. Then he moved to modify the trust. Oops. That made him the no-contest violator.

Nursing Homes are Improving – Or Are They?

Nursing home quality

Do you have a family member in an American nursing home? Or, perhaps, are you looking at the prospect of moving someone to a facility soon? You might reasonably worry about the quality of nursing home care in the U.S. There’s good news (and ambiguous news) about the quality of nursing home care this week. […]

Arizona Adopts Electronic Will Law Effective Next Year

Electronic will

Perhaps you are waiting to sign your will. You might be thinking that you should be able to sign an electronic will. Maybe you want to hold off until then. Well, you will only have another year to wait. What is an electronic will? So what is the big deal, anyway? Can’t you sign your […]

Partition: Dividing Joint Property Through the Courts

Partition

Sometimes joint owners can’t agree on how to manage — or divide — their jointly-owned asset. The difficulty might arise with real estate, or a business, or even financial accounts. When they can’t agree on what to do, the result might be what the legal system calls a “partition” proceeding. Joint ownership Two — or […]

Why You Aren’t Really Limited to $14,000 in Gifts Each Year

APRIL 27, 2015 VOLUME 22 NUMBER 16 There is so much misinformation (and misunderstanding) around gift taxes, that we thought we would take a few moments and try to straighten out the confusion. Let’s start at the end: if you live in Arizona, and are not fabulously wealthy, you probably don’t actually care very much […]

Robert B. Fleming

Attorney

Robert Fleming is a Fellow of both the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys. He has been certified as a Specialist in Estate and Trust Law by the State Bar of Arizona‘s Board of Legal Specialization, and he is also a Certified Elder Law Attorney by the National Elder Law Foundation. Robert has a long history of involvement in local, state and national organizations. He is most proud of his instrumental involvement in the Special Needs Alliance, the premier national organization for lawyers dealing with special needs trusts and planning.

Robert has two adult children, two young grandchildren and a wife of over fifty years. He is devoted to all of them. He is also very fond of Rosalind Franklin (his office companion corgi), and his homebound cat Muninn. He just likes people, their pets and their stories.

Elizabeth N.R. Friman

Attorney

Elizabeth Noble Rollings Friman is a principal and licensed fiduciary at Fleming & Curti, PLC. Elizabeth enjoys estate planning and helping families navigate trust and probate administrations. She is passionate about the fiduciary work that she performs as a trustee, personal representative, guardian, and conservator. Elizabeth works with CPAs, financial professionals, case managers, and medical providers to tailor solutions to complex family challenges. Elizabeth is often called upon to serve as a neutral party so that families can avoid protracted legal conflict. Elizabeth relies on the expertise of her team at Fleming & Curti, and as the Firm approaches its third decade, she is proud of the culture of care and consideration that the Firm embodies. Finding workable solutions to sensitive and complex family challenges is something that Elizabeth and the Fleming & Curti team do well.

Amy F. Matheson

Attorney

Amy Farrell Matheson has worked as an attorney at Fleming & Curti since 2006. A member of the Southern Arizona Estate Planning Council, she is primarily responsible for estate planning and probate matters.

Amy graduated from Wellesley College with a double major in political science and English. She is an honors graduate of Suffolk University Law School and has been admitted to practice in Arizona, Massachusetts, New York, and the District of Columbia.

Prior to joining Fleming & Curti, Amy worked for American Public Television in Boston, and with the international trade group at White & Case, LLP, in Washington, D.C.

Amy’s husband, Tom, is an astronomer at NOIRLab and the Head of Time Domain Services, whose main project is ANTARES. Sadly, this does not involve actual time travel. Amy’s twin daughters are high school students; Finn, her Irish Red and White Setter, remains a puppy at heart.

Famous people's wills

Matthew M. Mansour

Attorney

Matthew is a law clerk who recently earned his law degree from the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law. His undergraduate degree is in psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Matthew has had a passion for advocacy in the Tucson community since his time as a law student representative in the Workers’ Rights Clinic. He also has worked in both the Pima County Attorney’s Office and the Pima County Public Defender’s Office. He enjoys playing basketball, caring for his cat, and listening to audiobooks narrated by the authors.