Damar Hamlin Illustrates POA Importance
Football fans everywhere stood stunned last Monday night when Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field. He was resuscitated, then carted off to the hospital. He’s now recovering from the cardiac arrest, talking and breathing on his own. But for several days, he was sedated while his medical team assessed his condition. Hamlin’s […]
ABLE and SECURE Act Sequels
It was right there in the year’s name: 2022. Lots of sequels. See all those 2s in the year? We had some of the same experience in legal circles — particularly in the ABLE And SECURE Acts In the hours before Christmas, Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023. President Biden quickly signed it […]
Top Ten Elder Law Lessons from 2022
At the end of each month, we take stock of elder law news and developments and share them. For the December review, we look less to outside news and commentary and instead think about what we (or others) have learned or wish we (or others) had learned before something unfortunate happened. Here are some lessons […]
Legally Required Notice in Probate Court
Legally-required notice rules in probate proceedings are straightforward. They mandate mail notice or personal service on interested parties. The person filing a probate proceeding usually must publish notice in the newspaper, as well. But what if they don’t know how to reach other family members?
Dead Celebs: Why Fight Over Who’s Executor?
It sure seems like families of dead celebrities fight a lot. And the battles are sometimes over not a lot. Like who should administer the dead celebs’ estate. Take rapper Takeoff and actress Anne Heche (who we’ve written about once or twice already).
Famous People’s Wills Are Not Always Like Yours
We often write about famous people’s wills — usually when they have died recently. So, for instance, we recently wrote about Anne Heche’s will. More accurately, we wrote about what might be her will. Sometimes we discuss the absence of a will, or other poor planning choices. Consider the continuing mess generated by Prince’s failure to plan his estate.
November’s Elder Law Items of Interest
Turkey. Done. Pie. Done. Black Friday. Done. Next? December. But first, our review of elder law items of interest from November: Estate & Tax Planning The estate tax exemption will take a relatively big jump in 2023. It increases to $12.92 million per person from $12.06 million in 2022. That’s an extra $860,000 to plan […]
The Problem of the Pretermitted Spouse
One of the common and vexing problems in administering a decedent’s estate is how to deal with a pretermitted spouse. To most non-lawyers, that sounds vaguely disturbing. What is a “pretermitted spouse,” and why do we care about their problems? What – or who – is a “pretermitted spouse”? “Pretermitted” is just a near-archaic term […]
Estate Tax Revenue Jumps for 2021
Something surprising happened in 2021: Estate tax revenue increased. Though the estate tax exemption has never been higher, the amount collected almost doubled from 2020 to 2021, from $9.3 billion to $18.4 billion, recent IRS data indicates. Experts suspect it’s the combination of pandemic death rates and market gains in stocks and real estate. Some […]
Do Not Resuscitate / Do Not Hospitalize / Do Not Intubate (DNR/DNH/DNI)
A client asked last week whether he had properly signed his own DNR and DNI orders. We asked if he meant a “do not resuscitate” and “do not intubate” order. He confirmed that was what he thought he had signed. It made us think we need to look at the advance directive issue and update […]