Amending Your Will–Caution: Do Not Try This At Home
FEBRUARY 20, 2012 VOLUME 19 NUMBER 7 OK — you’ve signed your will and paid the big lawyer’s fee. Now you want to make a change. Do you know how to modify your will? Can you do it without incurring another fee? Shouldn’t it be easy to make the change? All that might have been […]
Will Rejected in Illinois but Approved by Indiana Courts
JANUARY 30, 2012 VOLUME 19 NUMBER 4 We are frequently surprised by how much trouble people cause for their families and heirs by not taking simple steps to properly plan for their estates. One thread that often recurs involves a fear (or perhaps disapproval) of lawyers, leading to failure to get good legal advice about […]
Court Rule Changes Will Affect AZ Fiduciaries in 2012
JANUARY 2, 2012 VOLUME 19 NUMBER 1 Two weeks ago we detailed some of the statutory changes facing guardians, conservators and other fiduciaries in Arizona beginning with the new year. At the same time the legislature was working on those changes, the Arizona Supreme Court was considering changes to the rules and procedures governing probate […]
Arizona Probate Court Changes Coming in 2012
DECEMBER 19, 2011 VOLUME 18 NUMBER 43 It is not exactly a secret that the Arizona probate court system has been widely criticized over the past two years or so. The Phoenix-area newspapers have been filled with stories about alleged abuses of the probate process. Many of those stories have focused on practices in the […]
Paternity Testing Allows Unacknowledged Son to Share in Estate
NOVEMBER 21, 2011 VOLUME 18 NUMBER 40 Paternity testing has come a long way in the last few decades. You might reasonably think that it is now so easy to establish parentage that probate court disputes about the subject would be largely a thing of the past. If you thought that, you’d be wrong. Just […]
Patient With Dementia May Have Authored Valid Will
NOVEMBER 7, 2011 VOLUME 18 NUMBER 38 A woman has been diagnosed as suffering from dementia of the Alzheimer’s type, and she resides in an assisted living facility. She has short-term memory loss, is frequently forgetful and has difficulty with tasks like playing cards and operating her television set. Can she sign a new will? […]
Lawyer’s Move From Representing Widow to Estate is Problematic
OCTOBER 31, 2011 VOLUME 18 NUMBER 37 Floyd Spence, a Republican Congressman from South Carolina, was a long-time survivor of a heart-lung transplant and a (separate) kidney transplant when he died in 2001, at the age of 73. He was survived by his second wife, Deborah Spence, and four adult sons from his first marriage […]
When Is a Living Trust More Appropriate Than a Will?
JUNE 6, 2011 VOLUME 18 NUMBER 20 Last week we answered a pair of questions from our readers and solicited others. Almost immediately we received an excellent question: What are the factors you look at to determine if a client is best served w/ a will and durable power of attorney or a living trust? […]
If You Were the Probate Judge, What Would You Decide?
MAY 9, 2011 VOLUME 18 NUMBER 17 Let us give you some insight into how hard it can be to figure out how to interpret estate planning documents. At the same time we hope to explain why it is important to keep your own estate plan up to date. Timothy M. Donovan was a successful […]
Some More of Our Readers’ Questions Answered
MARCH 7, 2011 VOLUME 18 NUMBER 8 Two weeks ago we answered some of our readers’ frequent questions, and we solicited more. We heard from several of you with good questions of general interest. Among those (with identifying information and some details stripped out): My wife and I do not have any obvious family member […]
