APRIL 16, 2001 VOLUME 8, NUMBER 42 Most professional observers agree that income tax avoidance schemes are on the rise. This may be because of a reduction in Internal Revenue Service personnel, or increasing public familiarity with trusts and other entities, or a fundamental shift in the levels of greed and gullibility on the part…
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APRIL 9, 2001 VOLUME 8, NUMBER 41 Victoria Ann Elder’s last years were tragic. The victim of an automobile accident, Ms. Elder was a quadriplegic and confined to her bed at the Stone County Skilled Nursing Facility in Mountain View, Arkansas. One Saturday evening the helpless woman was sexually assaulted by an aide at the…
APRIL 2, 2001 VOLUME 8, NUMBER 40 Aleen Russell died in Kentucky in 1996. She never got around to writing a will, but Kentucky’s law of “intestate succession” provided a simple plan for distribution of her estate. The $160,000 she left would be divided equally among her surviving children. If any child of hers had…
MARCH 26, 2001 VOLUME 8, NUMBER 39 Assume that Mr. and Mrs. Smith, happily married, sign wills leaving all their assets to one another. Some years later their marriage fails, and the Smiths divorce. Will their old wills still be valid? Arizona, like many other states, has a provision that effectively revokes Mr. and Mrs.…
MARCH 19, 2001 VOLUME 8, NUMBER 38 Discussions about repeal of the federal estate tax often focus on the notion that farms and businesses are threatened by taxing assets at the death of the family patriarch or matriarch. Opponents of repeal, on the other hand, argue that it is family and business dynamics that usually…
MARCH 12, 2001 VOLUME 8, NUMBER 37 In 1966 Norman Dacy published his now-famous book “How to Avoid Probate.” Dacy’s book made several claims that have since become practically articles of faith: probate is always too expensive, takes too long and requires disclosure of too much information. The cost of probate has been reduced in…
MARCH 5, 2001 VOLUME 8, NUMBER 36 Maria Isabel Duran was a devout Jehovah’s Witness. The 34-year-old New York woman believed, along with most members of her faith, that the Bible prohibits transfusions of blood or blood products, even when life is threatened. Ms. Duran also needed a liver transplant operation. Her faith does not…
FEBRUARY 26, 2001 VOLUME 8, NUMBER 35 Craig Fitzgerald was a successful accountant living in New Jersey; when he died he left three children and a wife. In the immediate aftermath of the unanticipated loss of her husband, Joan Fitzgerald did not realize that she had estate planning problems of her own to deal with.…
FEBRUARY 19, 2001 VOLUME 8, NUMBER 34 Sometimes lawyers remind their colleagues and clients that legal problems would arise less frequently if individuals would simply lead more orderly lives. Clarence Schoenfeld and family helped prove that basic legal maxim. Clarence “Clay” Schoenfeld was 50 and a professor at the University of Wisconsin when he married…
FEBRUARY 12, 2001 VOLUME 8, NUMBER 33 Leland and Christine Belcher were married for forty years, but never had any children. After Leland died, Christine Belcher met and married David Yates. Under the law of Alabama (where the Yates’ lived), David Yates would inherit all of Christine Belcher Yates’ estate if she died before him—unless…