APRIL 30, 2012 VOLUME 19 NUMBER 17 We were reminded recently of the existence of a resource for elderly veterans and their surviving spouses — one that is too often overlooked, as it happens. We had yet another client who was unaware that she might qualify to receive a Veterans Administration pension benefit. We have written…
APRIL 23, 2012 VOLUME 19 NUMBER 16 Let us try to demystify probate avoidance for a moment. Note that for the purposes of this description, we are not going to argue with you about whether avoidance of probate is good, bad, desirable or a foolish goal — we start here with the assumption that probate…
APRIL 16, 2012 VOLUME 19 NUMBER 15 Tax ID numbers for trusts. When we first wrote about this topic, we did not appreciate how interested our readers would be. We thought that the issue was sort of dry, actually, and that most people would have asked their lawyer or their accountant for direction. It has…
APRIL 9, 2012 VOLUME 19 NUMBER 14 Federal and Arizona state income tax returns are due next week. It’s a good time to review tax deductions for one of the common situations we deal with: in-home (or, for that matter, institutional) caregiving for an infirm family member. We wrote about an individual case involving long-term…
APRIL 2, 2012 VOLUME 19 NUMBER 13 We have been hearing lately about a scam that targets seniors. You get a telephone call from a number you don’t recognize. When you answer, the person on the other line says: “Grandma, it’s me, and I need your help.” You learn that your grandchild has been detained…
MARCH 26, 2012 VOLUME 19 NUMBER 12 Here at Fleming & Curti, PLC, we keep tabs on what brings people to our website. We look at referring pages, at search terms and at a variety of other items. We are intrigued by what persistently tops the search-engine list. The most common search? It’s some variation…
MARCH 19, 2012 VOLUME 19 NUMBER 11 Can a person under guardianship sign a new will? After all, in order to have a guardian appointed (in Arizona, at least), the court must first have found that the person is impaired by a mental disorder (or some other cause) and that he or she “lacks sufficient…
MARCH 12, 2012 VOLUME 19 NUMBER 10 Georgia Griffin (not her real name) moved from Kansas to Arizona in 1997. She lived in her own townhome in Sun City West, a retirement community northwest of Phoenix, until 2001, when she moved in next door to her daughter Barbara, who lived in Scottsdale. Georgia’s story was…
MARCH 5, 2012 VOLUME 19 NUMBER 9 We have written before about changes to Arizona guardianship, conservatorship and probate proceedings adopted in the past year. Changes involved both probate laws and court rules. One thread running through both sets of changes: the notion that proceedings in probate court could be unnecessarily complicated by “vexatious litigants.”…
FEBRUARY 27, 2012 VOLUME 19 NUMBER 8 Phoenix-area resident Larry Robertson (not his real name) was undoubtedly fading mentally, but he had made plans for handling his affairs. He had created a revocable living trust, signed a power of attorney and created a beneficiary deed. All those documents named a husband-and-wife team who were also…