A recent article in MSN money identifies a common problem with estate plans. Since 1995 the practice of treating different children differently in an estate plan has become more and more popular. Further, the evidence is clear that this practice has put a lot of stress on a lot of surviving familial relationships. As a matter of fact, I have seen instances where family members have sworn to never speak to each other as a result of a dispute regarding an estate. It isn’t hard to understand that a lot of feelings, and a lifetime of family dynamics can be tied up in these final wishes. While the rest of the world looks at these as financial transactions, they can be very personal evidence to a perceived prejudice for or against another beneficiary. Is Mom’s estate plan the final proof that she loved little Timmy more than she loved you? Maybe, but probably not. My experience has been that it is far more likely that Mom knows her kids better than anyone else on the planet knows her kids, so she knows that little Timmy is going to need more financial help than you are.

Really, that’s the rub. There […]

We love our families. It is rare that an attorney gets to make an unqualified statement, but I feel pretty safe about that one. Just about everything we do is done for the benefit of our families. We work hard so our families will have what they need. We take our kids to school so they can learn what they need to be successful. We tuck those same children in at night so they will know that we love them. We love our families. As I was tucking my own daughter in the other night, I was reading her a story when it dawned on me how many of the “Once upon a time’s” we share start out with a hero or heroine who has lost one or both of their parents unexpectedly. It is a running joke in Disney movies about how it is impossible to find two living parents. Think about it, Elsa and Anna of Erindale, Snow White, Cinderella, Tianna, Tarzan, Aladdin, Mowgli and how many others are single parent or no parent households. Don’t think the animal heroes are any better off Bambi, Nemo, and Simba are all similarly situated.

After that realization really sunk in, I […]

This weekend one of the most controversial figures in the history of the United States Supreme Court passed away.  Whether you hang on every word written by Justice Antonin Scalia, or you cringe at the thought of the vitriol that is reasonably expected in each of his opinions (and it seems like there is little middle ground between the two opinions), It is impossible to argue that he hasn’t helped form the political landscape over the past thirty years of his tenure on the Supreme Court.

He dedicated almost half of his life to the service of our nation on the Supreme Court, but, for an estate planning attorney, this is the time where we can determine how strong his legal game really was.  Sure, he shaped the discussion regarding search and seizure, and sure, the train wreck of campaign finance reform has his fingerprints inextricably etched thereon, but now is when we see how well he really practiced what he preached.  Often it is the case that the mechanic has the most broken down car on the block, not because he lacks the knowhow, but because he spends so much time fixing everyone else’s car that he neglects his own.  […]