Ten Commandments of Estate Planning Conversations

Good estate planners give their clients space for their emotional and spiritual needs. AI and online will preparation apps will never take account of your full self.  Among the lessons that attorneys must learn and clients can glean are ways to have difficult conversations about disability, dying, and death. The key to those conversations is […]

Where’s Your Will?

What do Chadwick Boseman, Norm MacDonald, Bob Saget, and Gilbert Gottfried have in common? They all died without a will. The situation is common but the consequences require a bit of analysis. According to the Gallup polls, less than half of Americans have a will. A person who dies without a will is intestate. Intestacy […]

Rupert Murdoch’s Trust Issues

The HBO program, Succession, echoed in a Nevada courtroom recently. The cable program imagined the machinations of a powerful media family, both craven and conservative. In real life, the succession of Rupert Murdoch, owner of News Corp. and Fox Corporation, was set when Murdoch transferred controlling ownership to an irrevocable trust. Since Murdoch’s retirement and […]

Estate Tax Changes Ahead: What You Need to Know

The current lifetime gift and estate tax exemption increases to $13.99 million per person ($27.98 million for married couples). However, this exemption will expire at the end of 2025. If no new law is passed, the exemption will drop to approximately $7 million per person ($14 million for married couples), leading to higher estate tax […]

Good Golly Little Richard

Who you select to manage your affairs after you die is of paramount importance. Selecting the right “fiduciaries” is among the lessons we can learn from the estate of Little Richard. The estate of Richard Wayne Penniman, the legendary singer, songwriter and recording artist known as Little Richard, who passed away in 2020, owned intellectual […]

Will or Trust?

Most estate planners warn about the horrors of probate. It’s time-consuming, expensive, and invasive. While the process does have shortcomings, there are benefits to probate too. The probate system was designed to ensure that a person’s property and accounts are distributed according to state law. Probate is the legal process for distributing a person’s assets […]

O.J.’s Unpaid Debt

The People vs. Orenthal Simpson captured the nation’s attention in 1995. The State of California brought charges against football and movie star, O.J. Simpson for the murder of former spouse Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman. The case resulted in a not-guilty verdict. However, in a civil suit brought by the families, he was […]

Life After Death Planning

Dennis Cunningham, famed civil rights lawyer, recently died of cancer. He was best known for advocacy on behalf of the Black Panthers and Attica prison inmates. Cunningham was also a devoted environmentalist. He wanted his body to be recycled. He instructed his children to have him composted after he died. Some refer to the composting […]

Plan for the End

Can you clearly state the medical treatment you want at the end of your life? Many execute a living will to express their desires in case of a terminal illness or end-stage condition. We might not know when a disease is terminal or when that condition has reached the end stage. One challenge is to […]

Beach Boy Guardianship

Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys fame was the subject of the film Love & Mercy. Wilson was portrayed by both Paul Dano, as a young Brian, and John Cusack as a more mature Brian. The film addresses Wilson’s lifelong struggle with mental illness. Perhaps it is no surprise that the Court in California received […]

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