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Estate Planning Issues For People With Pets

Pets in estate planning

MAY 27, 2013 VOLUME 20 NUMBER 21 Does anyone else remember reading “Rhubarb,” a 1946 novel by H. Allen Smith? The basic story: an eccentric millionaire leaves his entire fortune to a stray cat (the eponymous Rhubarb). Among the assets in the cat’s inheritance is a baseball team (the fictional New York Loons). Hilarity ensues. […]

Trust Administration Dispute Ends Up Costly for Complainant

MAY 20, 2013 VOLUME 20 NUMBER 20 One of the reasons people create living trusts is to reduce the likelihood of disputes among family members. In fact, any well-written estate plan — whether it involves a living trust or not — should focus at least partly on that worthwhile goal. Most estates do get settled […]

Court Avoids Deciding Fate of Unnecessary Special Needs Trust

Court avoids deciding

MAY 13, 2013 VOLUME 20 NUMBER 19 We read an interesting appellate court case this week involving an Indiana special needs trust. The court’s resolution of the case was actually not all that interesting — it was dismissed on technical grounds. But the story was an interesting one, and involved a problem that we see […]

Bypass Trusts, Disclaimer Trusts and Portability in Estate Planning

MAY 6, 2013 VOLUME 20 NUMBER 18 Last week we wrote about questions we often hear from our clients in the wake of big changes to the federal estate tax structure. Almost immediately we heard from a reader asking about portability and disclaimer trusts; our reader suggested we try to explain the two concepts and […]

Some Questions We’re Being Asked a Lot Lately

APRIL 29, 2013 VOLUME 20 NUMBER 17 You probably have read that Congress has made big changes to the estate tax system. More accurately, Congress has made “permanent” the big (but piecemeal and temporary) changes introduced over the past decade. We hear a lot of questions from our clients about what those changes mean. Here […]

Court Ruling on Special Needs Trust Does Not Resolve Medicaid Eligibility

APRIL 22, 2013 VOLUME 20 NUMBER 16 This week we bring you a story that is simultaneously simple yet profound. It involves an arcane corner of law — the intersection of trust administration and Medicaid eligibility. Its simplicity is obvious: it results in a court determination that Medicaid eligibility is determined by the state Medicaid […]

How To “Fund” Your Revocable Living Trust

Funding your trust

APRIL 15, 2013 VOLUME 20 NUMBER 15 We keep bumping into versions of the same story: “Mom and dad created a revocable living trust. They wanted to avoid probate, and my sister lives in a group home because she is developmentally disabled. The trust named me as trustee, and my sister’s share goes into a […]

Upon Death of a Loved One, Some Things to Address

On death of a loved one

APRIL 8, 2013 VOLUME 20 NUMBER 14 More than three years ago we wrote about what you need to do when a family member dies. Our focus was on the immediate things that need to be dealt with: securing the house, taking care of pets, forwarding the mail. We thought we would get back to […]

Driving, Aging and Dealing With Family Dynamics

APRIL 1, 2013 VOLUME 20 NUMBER 13 Driving. It’s an issue for seniors. And their families. According to the Centers for Disease Control, drivers over age 75 are at particular risk for fatal accidents, and that risk continues to grow as those older drivers age. The CDC is candid: it’s hard to tell how much […]

Special Needs Trusts and the New Medicare Tax

MARCH 25, 2013 VOLUME 20 NUMBER 12 You may have heard about a potentially significant new tax liability for special needs trusts. With adoption of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (what is often referred to as “Obamacare”) Congress created a new tax intended for high earners to contribute to Medicare. A fairly complicated […]

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.