THE FACTS: I am one of four children. My siblings are Joe, Bill and Mary. My mother died last month. About 15 years ago, she went to her attorney and had a will prepared in which she named me as executor. Rather than divide her estate equally between her four children, my mother essentially disinherited […]
September 23, 2018 – 1:56 pm
The Facts: My mother recently passed away. She and my father were divorced and my mother was in a long term relationship with Tom. My mother prepared her will before she met Tom. After living with Tom for many years, my mother made changes to her will by writing in the margins of the pages […]
August 22, 2017 – 12:00 pm
THE FACTS: My father and sister perished in a plane crash under circumstances making it impossible to determine the order of death. My sister is survived by her spouse, Joe, and two children. My father’s will leaves his entire estate in equal shares to me and my sister, per stirpes. He was under the impression […]
October 8, 2015 – 3:07 pm
The Facts: I recently divorced my spouse. I was told that once the divorce was finalized, it won’t matter that my spouse is named as the primary beneficiary of my estate in my Will since that designation will essentially be ignored. The Questions: Is it true that my estate will not pass to my ex-spouse […]
January 23, 2014 – 10:16 am
We all know that time flies by and that important things are sometimes put on the back burner as we rush around taking care of our day to day responsibilities. We have also all heard heartbreaking stories about people who had every intention of revising their estate plans but, failed to take the necessary steps […]
March 13, 2013 – 12:36 pm
Recently I was reminded of how important it is to update your Will when circumstances change. A client came to see me about probating her husband’s Will. Unfortunately, her husband had signed the Will before he met my client and did not take the time to revise it. Since he did not have any children […]
February 9, 2012 – 6:55 pm
The Facts: I am divorced and getting married for the second time. I have two children. The woman I am marrying, Sally, is a widow with two children. All of the children are grown and living independently. We are both fairly well off and each have some investments as well as IRAs. Sally and I are […]
The Facts: My father had a daughter, Jane, from a prior marriage. He and Jane did not stay in touch. Since he wanted me to have his house after his death and wanted to avoid probate, my father put my name on the deed to his house after my mother’s death. The deed does not identify […]
