John Wick - What You Need To Know about the Corporate Transparency Act
Once Removed Episode 24: Expressing Goals and Intent for the Trust
Once Removed Episode 23: Naming Guardians for Minor Children
Once Removed Episode 22: Building Flexibility into the Estate Plan
Once Removed Episode 20: Helping a Beneficiary Purchase a Home
Life After Love Gone Wrong Podcast: Season 3, Episode 6 - Reshaping Your Legacy: Estate Planning After Your Divorce
Charitable Planning With Guest Stephanie Hood: Navigating Complex Rules and Traps for the Unwary
A Primer On Trusts - A Podcast with Janathan Allen
Once Removed Episode 13: It’s 5 o’Clock: Do You Know Where Your Will Is? A Lesson From Aretha Franklin
Once Removed Episode 12: SLATs and the Case of McKim vs. McKim
Once Removed Episode 11: Spousal Lifetime Access Trusts, or SLATs
Digital Planning Podcast Episode: Family Office Technology Solutions
Digital Planning Podcast Episode: The Uniform Electronic Estate Planning Documents Act
What is a self-proving affidavit?
The Importance of Beneficiary Designations
Taking the Sting Out of Death Taxes with Dylan Metzner, Jones & Keller
Basics of Estate Planning
The Case of the Disappearing Trust
Protecting Your Estate Plan from Challenges: No-Contest Clause Explained
The Secret Child
A longstanding and critical incident of a trustee’s fiduciary duty of loyalty is the duty to vigorously defend the trust’s very existence, as well as all its material provisions (hereinafter “existence defense”), unless it...more
In Estate of Long, the plaintiff sued trustees and alleged that she was the only child of the decedent and asserted a cause of action for a will contest and a cause of action for a declaratory judgment action in which she...more
Offshore Trust and Estate Litigation Update Series – Part II - Following on from Part I of this series which summarised the Cayman Court’s consideration of a trustee’s application for the “blessing” of a “momentous...more
We begin the year with a case, Riverside County Public Guardian v. Snukst (2022) ___ Cal.App.5th ___, involving an elder with dementia who received Medi-Cal benefits. The case, a blast from the past, illustrates how the...more
In an opinion released last week, the Minnesota Court of Appeals rejected a petition to modify the terms of a trust to allow for the early distribution of trust assets to the beneficiaries. The court also denied the...more
In Goepp v. Comerica Bank & Trust, N.A., the settlors created inter vivos trusts and their three children were the remainder beneficiaries. No. 03-19-00485-CV, 2021 Tex. App. LEXIS 5461 (Tex. App.—Austin July 9, 2021, no pet....more
Suing the suer is a common strategy in California civil litigation. A special motion to strike, known as an anti-SLAPP motion, can be a powerful weapon against such retaliatory litigation. We have explained the use of such...more
In JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. v. Campbell, a member of a limited partnership sued other partners, including a trustee of a trust, to dissolve the partnership. No. 09-20-00161-CV, 2021 Tex. App. LEXIS 5001 (Tex. App.—Beaumont...more
A common misperception of trusts is that they are legal entities that, like corporations, can hold title to real estate and other property. A new California appellate decision, Boshernitsan v. Bach (2021) ___ Cal.App.5th ___,...more
Trust and estate litigators, and mediators, are buzzing over a recent decision from the California Court of Appeal that validates mandatory mediation of trust disputes. In Breslin v. Breslin (Case No. B301382, decided...more
What court should hear a dispute over a California trust? I briefed this question last month when a judge questioned if a case should instead be adjudicated in neighboring states. Such jurisdiction issues come up occasionally...more
In Benge v. Thomas, a settlor created a trust and appointed her daughter, Missi, as the trustee. No. 13-18-00619-CV, 2020 Tex. App. LEXIS 6888 (Tex. App.—Corpus Christi August 27, 2020, no pet.)....more
Providing for your children is one of the primary purposes of estate planning, but what happens to your carefully crafted trust if you had children you did not know about when you created the trust? Or, what if you have...more
While California trustees hope for smooth sailing, they must navigate waters that can be choppy depending on the assets, trust instruments and personalities involved. As fiduciaries, trustees must honor the trustors’ intent...more
There has been considerable discussion regarding including arbitration clauses in estate planning documents over recent years. Some estate and trust attorneys are actively pushing for the inclusion of such clauses. Recently,...more
Individual trustees often fail to fulfill the duties imposed on trustees, not only by the trust instrument, by also by the trust statutes applicable in the jurisdiction. It is often the case that the individual trustee is a...more
The Probate & Fiduciary Litigation Newsletter compiles recent Trust & Estate cases. Our lawyers are at the forefront of this area of the law, shaping how it is handled in the Probate and Family Court. ...more
In Waldron v. Susan R. Winking Trust, a daughter was a beneficiary of a trust set up by her parents. No. 12-18-00026-CV, 2019 Tex. App. LEXIS 5867 (Tex. App.—Tyler July 10, 2019, no pet. history)....more
While institutional trustees may have once slept soundly considering themselves immune from class action lawsuits relating to the purchase or sale of securities on behalf of a trust, the Ninth Circuit’s recent ruling in Banks...more
In In re Ignacio G. & Myra A. Gonzales Trust, a couple formed a trust and named their daughter as the trustee. No. 06-19-00014-CV, 2019 Tex. App. LEXIS 4648 (Tex. App.—Texarkana June 6, 2019, no pet. history)....more
The Probate & Fiduciary Litigation Newsletter compiles recent Trust & Estate cases. Our lawyers are at the forefront of this area of the law, shaping how it is handled in the Probate and Family Court. Goulston & Storrs is the...more
In Marshall v. Ribosome L.P., a beneficiary of a trust sued a limited partnership of which the trustee was a partner. No. 01-18-00108-CV, 2019 Tex. App. LEXIS 3787 (Tex. App.—Houston [1st Dist.] May 9, 2019, no pet. history)....more
The California Supreme Court has written that a "trust is a fiduciary relationship with respect to property in which the person holding legal title to the property--the trustee--has an equitable obligation to manage the...more
In Goughnour v. Patterson, a beneficiary sued a trustee based on a failed real estate investment. No. 12-17-00234-CV, 2019 Tex. App. LEXIS 1665 (Tex. App.—Tyler March 5, 2019, no pet. history). In 2007, the trustee of four...more
American courts (including our California state courts), in contrast to courts in England, do not typically award attorneys’ fees to a lawsuit’s “victor.” There are, of course, exceptions to this so-called “American Rule.”...more