I have an important topic to talk to you about today: The three phases that every estate goes through in the Georgia probate process. After reading about these phases, you’ll have an overview of the steps to probate a will in Georgia, from the beginning when we open the estate, to the end wh...
Here it is, the season finale of Undue Influence, the Series. We pick up this week with Lawrence's death in late 1993. His live-in 'caretaker' Romano Pagliarani handled the funeral arraignments, stayed in his rooms in Lawrence's apartment, in the apartment building in Boston's North End that Lawren...
Last week we launched Undue Influence, the Series. Here's Episode 2. It's the story of Lawrence Moretti and his lifelong friend, Rita Casoni, and the close knit neighborhood that is Boston's North End. When we left them last week, Lawrence, in his late seventies, had begun to suffer some health pro...
If we were ever going to make a movie or prestige TV/Netfix series about Probate Court, it'd have to be called Undue Influence. Catchy title, also the term 'undue influence' covers so many scenarios we'd probably get a bunch of seasons out of it as an anthology series like American Horror Story. Whi...
Last month we did a Facebook post about the latest on the Michael Jackson estate - yes, it is still open. The crux was this: the IRS valued Michael Jackson's image - an asset under California law - at a whopping $434 million. The estate valued it at . . . $2,105. The IRS is currently suing the estat...
Separation and divorce have, perhaps obviously, potentially adverse effects on estates and the probate process. Regardless of when it occurred. Both are fraught with emotions and complications that tend to linger for years. Along the line, promises are made, between the exes, with the children, som...
We just posted a link to a Wall Street Journal article about the pitfalls of being an executor. There are more than a few and even experienced financial professionals can run afoul of the sometimes arcane rules. By the way, these pretty much apply to trustees as well. Our blog posts over the last f...
Here's a quick story. A father runs a successful farm. He and his wife have two children, both boys, a couple of years apart. The boys grow up, go to college, go on to solid careers. Mom dies, dad remarries. The boys, now in their late forties are not happy. Dad, though, is. The boys never accept th...
We just posted a link to a Wall Street Journal article about the pitfalls of being an executor. There are more than a few and even experienced financial professionals can run afoul of the sometimes arcane rules. By the way, these pretty much apply to trustees as well. Our blog posts over the last f...
We were looking back on some of the probate cases we've written about over the last year and, sure enough, one of them had a significant update in the last month or so. It casts the spotlight on the duties of executors/trustees. It is the Alan Thicke estate. You may recall that Alan Thicke died sud...
You hear about simple wills all the time. Usually, it means someone executed ‘just’ a will, a will that took care of everything without the need for trusts. You know, simple. We find that a lot of people also think: simple will, simple probate, no problems, no worries. It’s a natural enough as...
We just did a Facebook post about an article in the Washington Post last week about Prince's estate - it was the two year anniversary of his death last Sunday. The title was: What would Prince want? A really evocative headline, to be sure. Prince, as you know, died unexpectedly and without a will. A...
