Year: 2020
How Do You Exercise A Power Of Appointment (“Poa”)
In Cessac v. Stevens, 2013 WL6097315, Sally died having an interest in 3 different trusts. Sally devised the residue of her estate to Joanne. Sally’s will did contain a reference to the trusts but did not reference the POA held by Sally. All trusts included a...
An Ira Payable To A Trust – A Little Relief
If the beneficiary of an IRA is a trust then complicated rules apply to determine whether you can defer the payments of the IRA over the life expectancy of a designated beneficiary (“DB”). If your trust “fail safe” clause provides that, if all named beneficiaries are...
Did You Miss The Portability Election? Relief Is Provided
The estate tax exclusion amount is now “portable” between husband and wife and until recently, no explicit guidance was available to determine when and how to successfully file a late return to elect such portability. In the recent Revenue Procedure 2014-18 the IRS...
Beware Of The Use Of Preprinted Wills!
The Florida Supreme Court held in Aldrich v. Basile, 2014 WL 1240073, that, absent a residuary clause or proper devise of an asset, any after acquired property of a decedent shall pass according to Florida’s intestacy laws. Ms. Aldrich drafted her will using an “E-Z...
Annuity Contracts May Allow The Beneficiary To Avoid Writs Of Garnishment
The Fifth District Court of Appeal of Florida recently held that beneficiaries of annuity contracts are exempt from garnishment pursuant to Florida Statute §222.14.In Connor v. Seaside Nat’l Bank, 2014 WL 1255340, a settlement in a dissolution of marriage distributed...
Your Signature Block Just Got Smaller
At the end of a lawyer’s email there is a lot of language that no one reads, no one pays attention to and no one cares about. So why do we put it there? A few years ago Treasury issued proposed regulations (known as Circular 230) which provided complicated guidelines...
Trust Code Updates Lapsing Statute
Section 732.603 of the Florida Statutes (the “antilapse statute”) is a probate default rule of construction that allow certain devises under a last will and testament to pass to the devisee’s descendants instead of the devise “lapsing” to the residuary or passing by...
Cremated Remains: An Uncomfortable Topic But Necessary To Discuss
Generally, families are in agreement over the disposition of cremated remains but in a recent 4th District Case, Wilson v. Wilson, 138 So. 3d 1176 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2014), the District Court upheld a longstanding legal principle that a decedent’s cremated remains...
Beware! Your Fee Agreement May Not Be As Clear To Clients As You May Think
In West v. Chrisman, 2014 WL 4683182, a Florida District Court affirmed the Bankruptcy Court’s Order finding that West, as Co-Trustee and attorney for the trust administration, owed a non-dischargeable debt to the trust in the amount of $212,478.00, because his fee...
Why Unclaimed Property Searches Need To Be On Your Probate Checklist
In Bartsch v. Costello, 2015 WL 3759702, James Bartsch died in 2002 and was survived by a spouse and two children, one of which was from a prior marriage (“Daughter”). Bartsch’s death certificate incorrectly listed him as divorced and his wife, Agnes, did not have the...