Archive: Estates and Trusts

Ch-ch-ChangesPretty soon you’re gonna get a little olderTime may change meBut I can’t trace timeI said that time may change meBut I can’t trace time “Changes” by David Bowie When clients sign their estate planning documents, whether it is a power of attorney, a will, or a trust, the odds are that at least one...

When The Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, passed away in August 2018, few could imagine how messy she had left her legal affairs. Nearly five years later, in July 2023, following years of nasty intra-family litigation, a Michigan jury concluded that a 2014 document found in — yes, Ms. Franklin’s couch cushions — was indeed...

An irrevocable life insurance trust (or “ILIT”) can be a critical component of estate planning for certain clients. Typically, the client who might benefit from an ILIT is the client who anticipates exposure to estate tax. At present, this includes DC clients who have more than $4 Million in total assets (life insurance, real estate,...

We have previously discussed powers of attorney and their role in estate planning. When we circulate draft estate planning documents to clients, we often get questions about the language within these documents. Here, we’ll shed a little bit more light on the language within these documents, how the documents were created, why we don’t recommend...

When most folks hear of “decanting”, they think of wine. When estate and trust attorneys hear of “decanting”, yes, many of us think about wine, but we also think about an important legal principle. The Maryland legislature passed a bill that will head to Governor Moore’s desk for signature permitting trust “decanting”. Decanting is the...

Trusts and wills are both popular estate planning tools for managing and distributing assets after death. There are some similarities and many differences between trusts and wills. We’ll highlight 10 of the most frequently asked questions about trusts and wills. 1. What is a trust and what is a will? Let’s start with the fundamentals....

When we navigate estate planning documents with our clients, there is a dizzying array of roles and positions within the documents. With the Academy Awards just last weekend and movies on our mind, we present the Estate Planning Cast of Characters, our handy reference guide to who will have roles to fill in an estate...