Do I Need a Prenuptial Agreement?
Love Actually: Planning Considerations for Marriage, Divorce, Cohabitation, the Death of a Spouse, and More
Mamma Mia!: Common Estate Planning Issues for Blended Families
How Much an Arizona Divorce Will Cost
DE Talk | Resiliency & Determination: The Military Spouse Employee Makeup
Life After Love Gone Wrong Podcast: Season 3, Episode 7 - Invisible Scars: The Impact of Coercive Control on Children
DE Under 3: An Explanation of the Current Federal Budget Bill Confusion
Life After Love Gone Wrong Podcast: Season 3, Episode 5 - Parallel Proceedings: The Intersection of Criminal Law and Family Law
DE Under 3: U.S. GAO Report on Military Spouse Employment Focused on Challenges of Part-Time Work
Life After Love Gone Wrong Podcast: Season 3, Episode 2 - Mortgage Mastery: Charting a Financial Course Post-Divorce
Life After Love Gone Wrong Podcast: Season 3, Episode 1 - The Truth Behind Coercive Control
Jewish Divorce Talk: Episode 8 - Narcissism and Parental Alienation Talk
Once Removed Episode 12: SLATs and the Case of McKim vs. McKim
Once Removed Episode 11: Spousal Lifetime Access Trusts, or SLATs
Jewish Divorce Talk: Episode 6 - “Let’s Gett Serious” Talk
Let's Talk About Common Law Marriage
Let's Talk What to Bring to Your First Family Law Appointment
The $6 Million Wedding
Immigration Settlement Clears the Way for Thousands of H-1B and L-1 Spouses to Work in the US
Marriage and Divorce Considerations for Health Care Providers
A recent case by the Tennessee Court of Appeals highlights the importance of changing one’s insurance and retirement policy beneficiaries after divorce. This is true no matter what the divorce documents say and no matter what...more
When you are going through a divorce, one of the first documents you will review (and if you have not, you should) are the automatic orders that accompany any complaint. ...more
Married couples often have wills naming one another as their primary beneficiary. People also often name their spouse as beneficiary of retirement accounts and life insurance policies. Upon commencing a divorce action,...more
As a bit of background, there is a distinction between probate assets and non-probate assets. Probate assets are distributed according to your will during a probate administration whereas non-probate assets are distributed...more
During the divorce process, one often overlooked area is updating your estate plan. Divorce can impact beneficiary designations on life insurance policies, retirement accounts, and other assets and can also have tax...more
In the recent case of Schaddelee as Cotrustee of Ronald Schaddelee Irrevocable Trust v. Deleon as Cotrustee of Ronald Schaddelee Irrevocable Trust, 2023 WL 4143639 (Mich Ct App Jun 22, 2023) (unpublished), the Michigan Court...more
An important change to the Divorce Code will have a significant impact on contractual beneficiary designations effective May 2, 2023. Section 3323 has been amended to add subparagraph (b.1) which provides in part, “[a]n order...more
I have seen this more than one time in my career. One party (or his/her family members) really wants there to be a prenuptial agreement but, either due to lack of time, fear/cowardice, not having your act together, or any...more
Yesterday, I blogged on the S.W. v. G.M. case in a post entitled More from the Appellate Division on Lifestyle, Foulas and the Concept of Income Equalization. In that blog, I noted that the S.W. court also addressed the...more
Recent decisions provide worthwhile guidance for insurers handling slayer claims. According to traditional inheritance law, a “slayer” is one who intentionally kills, or conspires to kill, feloniously or unjustifiably,...more
On September 18, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued an opinion in Arena v. Riversource Life Insurance Company, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 28052 (3d Cir. Sep. 18, 2019) (non-precedential), affirming the...more
If you are a US citizen and your spouse or civil partner is not you need to ensure you have appropriate estate planning in place to avoid your heirs getting an unexpected tax bill following your death. In this guide we...more
The Colorado Supreme Court published an opinion this summer involving what is commonly referred to as the “slayer statute.” In re Estate of Feldman, 443 P.3d 66 (Colo. 2019). The slayer statute, Colo. Rev. Stat. §...more
At the altar, you make hopeful and sincere vows to love and cherish each other until death do you part. Your goals for your long and successful marriage include many milestones: opening your first joint savings account,...more
Most plan administrators are familiar with a qualified domestic relations order or “QDRO,” which is used to split retirement plan benefits between a plan participant and an alternate payee, such as an ex-spouse or minor...more
A recent United States District Court opinion highlights the importance of providing summary plan descriptions and certificates of coverage for insured benefits. Discussion - In this case, the employee enrolled her lawful...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