What is Community Property?
The recent death of legendary actor, Gene Hackman, age 95, and his wife Betsy Arakawa, age 65, has brought attention to the complexities surrounding their estate and illustrates the need for proper estate planning. At his...more
December 2024 Interest Rates for GRATs, Sales to Defective Grantor Trusts, Intra-Family Loans and Split-Interest Charitable Trusts - The December Section 7520 rate for use in estate planning techniques such as CRTs, CLTs,...more
The term "gray divorce" is commonly used to describe later-life separations, but "golden divorce" might be a more fitting term, suggesting optimism and new beginnings. This concept reminds me of the beloved 1980s sitcom The...more
Unknown to many Floridians, Florida enacted the Community Property Trust Act which went into effect on July 1, 2021, and established the ability to convert non-community property into community property. The community...more
Can a California will sever a joint tenancy such that the decedent’s interest in real property passes per will’s terms instead of vesting in the surviving joint tenant(s)? Additionally, when a general partnership dissolves...more
October 2021 Interest Rates for GRATs, Sales to Defective Grantor Trusts, Intra-Family Loans and Split Interest Charitable Trusts - Federal interest rates increased slightly for October of 2021. The October applicable...more
When you die, your debts do not expire with you. Most debt still needs to be paid off, if possible. However, who is responsible for paying the debt depends on the type of debt, and some assets are protected from being used...more
I. Introduction Historically, Texas courts could not resort to extrinsic evidence to construe an unambiguous will. San Antonio Area Foundation v. Lang, 35 S.W.3d 636 (Tex. 2000)....more
In Naidoo v Discovery Life Limited & others (202/20170) ZASCA 88 (31 May 2018) the Supreme Court of Appeal was faced with the main task of determining whether a risk-only policy with a beneficiary clause constitutes an asset...more
In Estate of Gibson, a man named his sister as the beneficiary of his retirement plan in 1989. No. 06-17-00059-CV, 2017 Tex. App. LEXIS 9963 (Tex. App.—Texarkana October 13, 2017, no pet.)....more
On June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in the landmark case of Obergefell v. Hodges. The Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution requires all states to license a...more