by Christine | Oct 6, 2015 | Beneficiary Designation, Widow, Wills |
Any local news broadcast worth its salt has a consumer reporter who takes up the cause of defending consumers who have been ripped off or denied a refund or otherwise unfairly treated. One such report from a Denver station sought to help a widow with a Wells-Fargo...
by Christine | Oct 5, 2015 | Art, Estate Tax |
Owning a fractional interest in a piece of highly valued art has never been a simple matter where estate taxes are concerned. How the IRS values and applies the estate tax for estates that include fractional interests in art may be changing due to a recent Fifth...
by Christine | Oct 2, 2015 | Estates |
The widow of eccentric entertainment lawyer Johanan Vigoda has sued legendary musician Stevie Wonder for millions in unpaid royalties. The dispute centers on a contractual provision in the contract. The irony: Vigoda was responsible for getting Wonder out of a bad...
by Christine | Oct 1, 2015 | Estate Planning |
We love to plan happy events – vacations, weddings, backyard parties. Planning for your eventual demise doesn’t have the same appeal. Yet if you want to at least try to have some hand in your last years, months, days or even hours of life, planning is the way to go....
by Christine | Sep 30, 2015 | Will Contest, Wills |
There are many different ways to revoke a will. But without the guidance of an experienced estate attorney, a prior and properly executed will trumps a do-it-yourself will. It may seem that revoking a will should be a pretty straightforward process, but it is not. In...
by Christine | Sep 29, 2015 | Guardianships, Trusts, Wills |
Naming a guardian for minor children is never a pleasant task, but this situation makes a compelling argument for why it is so important. A Texas Attorney General with legal problems was appointed guardian of a large trust for two minor siblings and certain facts...
by Christine | Sep 28, 2015 | Inheritance |
It’s not exactly what most parents would want their children to use their inheritance for, but we suspect that this mother would have been very proud of her son. John Bickman Walls told his son Pelle Walls, who was then 17, that his mother, Walls’ ex-wife, had...
by Christine | Sep 25, 2015 | Estate Planning, Will Contest |
It’s been nearly ten years since litigation over the James Brown estate. Funding from his “I Feel Good” trust, has yet to make its way to needy students in North Carolina and Georgia because of several will contests. One last issue – the value of the estate, which is...
by Christine | Sep 24, 2015 | Uncategorized |
The estate sale has moved from a do-it-yourself enterprise into a big business. Seniors eager to empty their nests before their kids do it, as well as heirs who just don’t want to deal with the accumulations of a lifetime, are turning to estate sale professionals. But...
by Christine | Sep 23, 2015 | Estate Planning, Living Trust, Wills |
The stories of family relationships destroyed by the lack of wills or unfair distribution of assets are heartbreaking. Despite all evidence to the contrary, people somehow think that their adult children will be special and manage to work things out. This is rarely...
