According to David Goldman, the other Florida Estate Planning blogger named David (but who lives 300 miles away in Jacksonville), Leona Helmsley's estate made distributions of $136 million to charities, and "only" $1 million to her pets.
In what I believe is the first suit of its kind, the state of Oregon sued Oppenheimer Funds over its (mis)management of the state's 529 Plan. According to the Wall Street Journal , the Oppenheimer Core Bond Fund, which was supposed to be a "conservative" fund, lost 36% of its value in 2008, even though the index it was supposed to follow rose 5.2%. Apparently the "conservative" bond fund bet big on mortgage backed securities and total return swaps.
I apologize for not updating this, my continuing series (and my blog in general) in which I order estate planning documents from an Internet document service. As I previously wrote, I attended the ABA Techshow in Chicago, and got sick when I came back. Between the late nights, and the Chicago cold, and the uncirculated airplane air, I've been fighting a pretty bad cold. I'm really feeling better though, but not 100% yet.
To refresh your recollection, I am going through the process to see what a customer of this site is offered and what type of documents they produce. As I've said, my philosophical issue with these services is that they allow customers to choose what they want, instead of having a professional discuss with them what they need
In my last installment, I decided that I needed a Living Trust (even though I would never recommend a Living Trust for someone in my circumstances).
The first question: What type of Living Trust would I like to make?
I don't know the answer, so I click on the Help button.
As you can see, the Help page is filled with error and ambiguities. I certainly hope that anyone who actually needs an "AB" trust (generally couples that have more than a couple million dollars) would see an estate planning attorney to begin with.
I decide I want an Individual Living Trust, and move forward.
As you have probably read, first Iowa, and then Vermont have voted to legalize same sex marriage. Also, the District of Columbia has voted to recognize same sex marriages performed in other states.
However, as I have previously written, there is still no relief for same sex couples for federal tax purposes.
I recently discovered a new (to me) blog entitled the Pet Trust Law Blog, written by attorney Danny E. Meek. As you can tell from the title, Danny's blog is dedicated to the issues of estate planning for people with pets -- especially those who want to ensure that their pets are taken care of after their death.
He recently wrote an entry on "in terrorem" clauses in wills:
I spoke with a dog owner yesterday about some estate planning for her Boxer named Molly.
Molly’s owner, Mandy, told me that her only relative is a brother that she has not spoken with for years, and she is sure that no matter how she provides for Molly in her will, that the brother will contest the matter in the courts and try to take the money set aside for Molly.
We discussed the option of establishing a trust for Molly, but Mandy was not interested in that avenue.
I then suggested that the will could include an "in terrorem" clause.
“My brother may be a bad person, but he is certainly no terrorist,” exclaimed Mandy.
I smiled and explained that an "in terrorem” clause provides that if a person unsuccessfully challenges a provision in a will, then the challenger cannot receive any property under any other provision of the will.
So, if a court finds that Mandy’s will is otherwise valid, the clause providing monies for the care of Molly will be upheld, despite the protests of her brother.
Mandy’s desire to take care of her dog will be fulfilled.
In Terrorem clauses can be used by a testator wishing to prevent a will contest after their death. As Danny wrote, the clause serves as a disincentive for heirs to challenge the amount that they would otherwise receive. However, these clauses are invalid in the state of Florida. Section 732.517 of the Florida Statutes provides that a provision in a will purporting to penalize any interested person for contesting the will or instituting other proceedings relating to the estate is unenforceable.
So if you are a Florida resident, there are still methods to dissuade your potential heirs from challenging your will, and, if you believe such methods are necessary you should speak about those with your estate planning attorney. However an in terrorem clause is not one of them.
Paul Caron, a tax professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Law, and who has the #1 Tax Blog out there, has provided a recent round up of Estate Tax news.
Most of the articles that he linked to involve the fact that the Estate Tax is set to expire next year (and come back into full force the following year), and the various proposals to "fix" the problem.
I am still in Chicago for the ABA Techshow, which bills itself as "The World's Premier Legal Technology Conference and Expo. Aside from meeting a number of great people from all over the country, I also learned quite a bit. As a solo practitioner, my goal is to spend as much of my time as possible serving my clients, and as little time as possible dealing with the "administrative" side of running my practice. I picked up quite a few tips here to help make that so.
Regular blogging on estate planning and related issues will resume next week.
PS. I received my Internet ordered trust in the mail right before I left.
Enter keywords:
Add this blog to your feeds or put your e-mail in the box below and hit GO to subscribe by e-mail.
