Part III: Who? Identifying The Participants. “All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts[.]” ~ William Shakespeare’s As You Like It In addition to making clients face their own mortality, estate planning presents an […]
I have helped many people draft their estate plan documents and most have been traditional in the sense that they want to be “fair” to their descendants. If there is a spouse all goes to them, next to their kids in equal shares. Further, the testator (persons for whom the estate plan has been drafted) […]
February 12, 1809 – April 19, 1882 It has been 130 years since the famous scientist, Charles Darwin, passed away at age 73. He is known for his theory of evolution and more specifically, the theory of natural selection. As The New York Times noted in his obituary… The announcement that Charles Robert Darwin died […]
The R.M.S. Titanic set sail from England on April 10, 1912. On April 14, 1912, the ship hit an iceberg, which caused irreparable damage and ultimately caused it to sink on April 15, 1912. 100 years later, the sinking of the Titanic still fascinates the world. As a recent New York Times article notes, there […]
There is often confusion about what to do when a beneficiary inherits a retirement account. The answer is… it depends. There are different factors to determine the best course of action, such as the beneficiary and the age of the decedent. For purposes of this article, the term “retirement account” will be used to encompass […]
Although most of us would consider our estate planning attorney to be superhuman, the fact of the matter is that sometimes they are unable to perform their duties. In a recent case, the district court found that the physical and mental ailments of an estate planning attorney did not provide reasonable cause for the estate […]
Escheat is the forfeit of all property to the state when a person dies without heirs, descendants, or named beneficiaries. Escheat of property occurs when it appears from a petition or application for probate, or otherwise in a proceeding in a court, that a decedent left surviving no spouse or kindred. A court then will […]
June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997 As the website of the Allen Ginsberg Estate states, Allen Ginsberg was a “Renowned poet, world traveler, spiritual seeker, founding member of a major literary movement, champion of human and civil rights, photographer and songwriter, political gadfly, teacher and co-founder of a poetics school.”1 Ginsberg is one of […]
Earlier this month, Supplemental Needs Trusts were discussed. Today, we’ll focus on Special Needs Trusts. A Special Needs Trust is a tool in which a person with a disability is able to retain their assets by placing them into a trust to use the assets to supplement the government benefits the disabled person will receive […]
May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892 It is the 120th anniversary of Walt Whitman’s death. Walt Whitman spent his life writing poems, essays and working as a journalist. Probably his most famous work was Leaves of Grass, a collection of poems that Whitman began working on in 1850 and continued revising throughout the rest […]
Personal representatives and trustees are commonly responsible for distributing real property from an estate or trust to its designated beneficiaries. Such distributions present unique challenges for personal representatives, trustees, and beneficiaries alike. To this end, there are several considerations that should be made prior to distributing real property from an estate or trust.