Once an irrevocable trust has been finalized it cannot be terminated, whether that occurs upon the grantor’s death or during their life. Set up with the help of a trust and probate attorney, trust account rules state that once property is placed into an irrevocable trust account it cannot be retrieved by the grantor. A [...]
I first wrote about using an Arizona beneficiary deed to avoid probate on November 13, 2012. A recent decision of the Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel reveals a major shortcoming that should affect the popularity of beneficiary deeds. In Jones v. Mullen, BAP No. AZ-12-1644-DPaKu, the panel decided that the debtor’s interest in real property [...]
Probate is the court process by which a Last Will and Testament is proved valid or invalid. Its name is derived from a Latin root word that means “the truth.” It is also the legal process whereby assets of a decedent are administered. “Administration” means finding, collecting, and distributing assets in kind or after liquidation [...]
Over my many years practicing law I have become a niche lawyer concentrating on estate planning. A growing part of my estate planning practice involves administration of trusts and estates. An inevitable part of trust or estate administration is resolving contested matters. Unhappily, a large number of those disputes become litigated matters instead of models [...]
I’ve been a practicing lawyer in Scottsdale for over 30 years and I have never witnessed a fire-storm like the rage that has engulfed the probate system in the past two years. I’d like to bring some sanity to the story and suggest a sensible solution. If you haven’t read the horrible stories or [...]
Much has been written and discussed about the absence of an estate tax in 2010. The debate about what Congress may do rages on and is spiced up with stories about the death of George Steinbrenner and others like the Texas billionaire Dan Duncan, but the little publicized truth is that the 1 year [...]
I recently came across a New York Times article that reminded me of an all too common experience I encounter in my estate planning practice. In the article author Ron Lieber recounts his experiment with 4 different Do-It-Yourself will drafting software programs and the outcome. Although Lieber goes through the pros and cons of [...]
When fewer than half of all adult Americans have estate plans, you must ask yourself: why? One answer is that many people think they have already taken care of how their assets will pass to their heirs through joint tenancy. Joint tenancy works well if nothing out of the ordinary exists or occurs; but there [...]
In my last blog post I described the emotional and practical reasons why there is so much probate litigation and how to hire an experienced probate litigator; in this post I’ll mention some common contested probate allegations and measures that can be taken to avoid them or to keep them from spiraling out of [...]
Probate litigation is a burgeoning and fertile practice area for lawyers. There are many reasons why probate cases spawn litigation, but most grow from inadequate or defective estate plans nurtured by emotional dissatisfaction or greed. As an estate planner since 1979, I encourage my clients to create an estate plan that takes into consideration [...]