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The holidays are over and another New Year is about to begin.  Aunt Dorothy’s fruitcake is cleaned up from the back yard, where apparently the squirrels and birds won’t eat it either.  Your new fitness watch is telling you (after your walk) that you only need 6,398 more steps today to reach the optimal 10,000 daily.  You held your tongue throughout dinner when your daughter’s fiancé discussed the lawsuit he might file against his fourth employer in 2017 for unfair termination and your son annou...

In the U.K. more and more people are having to pay inheritance tax, leading to an increase in people insuring against that possibility.  Americans concerned about estate or inheritance taxes can do the same. People seem to complain about estate and inheritance taxes more than any other form of taxation, especially if they are affected by the tax.  There is something about taxing a person's assets after they pass away that rubs many people the wrong way.  This is true in the U.K. as well as the...

Convicted murderers like Charles Manson also leave behind estates when they pass away.  Most do not plan for how their estates should be handled, but Manson did. It might seem strange to think that there is something everyone can learn from Charles Manson.  The man was the mastermind responsible for some of the most horrific murders imaginable. One thing we can learn from his death is that everyone has an estate of some sort. When people think about having an estate, they often think it is som...

The best way to prevent your family from fighting over your estate is to let them know what to expect from your estate plan. The conversation does not need to be exclusively about money. Many things can cause families to fight over a deceased relative's estate. Some families are going to fight no matter what, and there is little that can be done to avoid it. This is one reason why you should enlist the expertise of an estate planning attorney. She can make your estate plan as...

As the world becomes more globalized, courts are having to sort out sometimes messy conflicts between the estate laws of different cultures.  A recent example comes out of Switzerland. More and more people today are interacting and marrying people from different countries and cultures. They also are choosing to hold their assets in nations where they do not live.  All of this can create problems when the laws of one nation conflict with the policies of another. Recently, a court in Switzerland...

The latest celebrity estate to see a dispute between relatives over control of the estate assets belongs to the late poet, Maya Angelou. In recent decades, students all over America have studied Maya Angelou's poem "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" in school.  It was the late poet's best known work. She is also remembered for her recitation at President Bill Clinton's first inauguration.  Angelou might be one of the few modern poets that the majority of people in the U.S. recognize by name. Sh...

People would like to know how much money they need to have in their accounts before they can consider retiring.  That answer differs from person to person. How much folks need to save for retirement depends on several different factors.  One crucial factor is what they plan to do during retirement.  People who plan to take a lot of vacations will likely need to have more money than those who are homebodies.

Personal representatives (executors) and estate administrators can sometimes be tempted to use their powers for their own financial benefit.  They would be wise to resist that temptation. People entrusted to administer an estate are given broad powers to complete their tasks.  While they often work under the supervision of the court, it is not always easy for courts to exercise that supervision. This is especially true when it comes to any self-dealing by a personal representative or other est...

If a trustee is removed from his or her duties, the former trustee usually turns over any assets he holds to the new trustee as quickly as possible.  There are exceptions to that rule, however. Marsha Sinzheimer and her late husband had created a trust for her benefit.  The trust documents required that there should be co-trustees, one a corporate trustee and one an individual trustee. Sinzheimer's son, Andrew, was appointed to take over as the individual trustee.  Before the former individual...

Some people will go a long way in their efforts to claim that they are the heir to a valuable estate when they are not even really related to the deceased. Recently the remains of Salvador Dali were exhumed by an order of a court in Spain.  A woman named Pilar Abel claimed to be Dali's daughter and entitled to a portion of his estate.  She convinced the court to exhume the body so that DNA testing could be conducted. As it turns out, the DNA testing revealed that Abel was not related to Dali....