Trusts and Estates Section

In January of 2009, the infamous and anonymous Satoshi Nakamoto launched the Bitcoin Network. Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency, which is a digital asset that lives on a decentralized public ledger, also known as the blockchain. Read more

Complaint that named trust, rather than trustee, as plaintiff did not deprive court of fundamental jurisdiction and trial court abused its discretion in denying leave to file an amended complaint substituting trustee as the plaintiff. Read more

Extrinsic evidence is admissible to determine whether a document was intended as a will even when the terms are unambiguous. Read more

Persons who hold estate property or receive it on or after the date of death are personally liable for unpaid estate taxes on that property. Read more

Trial court abused its discretion by applying the wrong legal standard when it defined “special needs” more narrowly than allowed under the trust instrument and special needs trust law in general. Read more

A settlor must follow the modification method set forth in the trust for an amendment to be valid. Read more

A number of cases have chipped away at the clarity of statutes instructive of a trustee’s duty to account, report, and inform. Read more

The IRS restated ALL the required minimum distribution (RMD) regulations in 2022. The new (proposed) regulations set out a SIMPLE EASY 4-step process for determining the “countable beneficiaries” of a trust named as beneficiary of a retirement account. Read more

The Probate court has the power to appoint persons to protect a conservatee’s interests and the power to deny appointment of proposed conflicted counsel as conservatee’s independent counsel. Read more

Special administrator had discretion to pay statutory fee earned by administrator’s attorney to third-party judgment creditor in partial satisfaction of attorney’s judgment debt. Read more