Estate Planning, Probate & Elder Law Attorneys

» For Real Planning, Start With the Review Schedule
Stop letting all your management plans slip through your fingers with efficient meetings that track progress.

» New CFO named at Greenhill

» The Agnes Wright Case and Loans vs. Gifts

In re. Estate of Agnes H. Wright is an appellate case that deals with whether an individual's attorneys can be disqualified. The case is available here as a pdf. I'm less interested in that issue than in the issue that prompted the litigation in the first place. This is an undue influence case, pitting sibling vs. sibling. At issue is a trust amendment signed by Mrs. Wright. The trust amendment says that she loaned her son Peter $1.8 million to purchase a vacation home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. The amendment recites other information about the transaction, but the key is that the amendment characterizes the transaction as a loan. Peter, however, says that the transaction was a gift, and that the trust amendment was executed only because Peter's sister Linda exerted undue influence against their mother.

If I had any advice to take from the case, it would be this: resolve issues of loan vs. gift before death, by a writing signed by all parties. The problem in the above case is that the amendment is signed only by Mrs. Wright. If you want to loan money to a child, have the child agree to the terms of the loan BEFORE you hand over the money. Similarly, if you want to gift money to a child, think seriously about making equal gifts to all children OR having all children acknowledge that the gift IS a gift (not a loan).

» PayPerPost For Christmas Cash
I’ve been trying out PayPerPost on another blog and it is really working well. Not only is it easy to use but I’m actually making some good money on the side. Adsense is nice because you can add it to a site a make a little bit each day without thinking about it, [...]

» If I Ran the Cook County Probate Court

Cook County has a pretty major backup in the probate area -- four judges now handle all decedent's estates cases. That's a lot, considering that they handle new cases as well as ones that are dragging on from prior years. As a result, the timeframe for opening an estate has expanded. If I file a petition right now, I may not be able to get a court date for another 4 (or 5 or 6) weeks. Not to mention the fact that, when you go into court, you typically have to wait for an hour or more to have your case called.

If I ran the Cook County Probate Court, my solution to the above problem would be computer filing of "non-contested" estates. I'd estimate that at least 80% of all probate cases in Cook County are open and shut -- no one is contesting the Will, and everyone just wants the probate process to move along as quickly and easily as possible. In cases like that, I would allow the attorney to file all court papers to open the estate via e-mail (as PDFs). The attorney would have to indicate that the PDFs are true and correct copies of the original papers (which are in the attorney's possession).

Perhaps one additional judge could be hired to handle computer filing (review and issue orders). His or her salary could be paid by a $100 "convenience fee" charged for computer filing. It seems to me that everyone wins:

1. Non-contested estates get processed more quickly and more cheaply (you'd rather pay a $100 convenience fee than pay an attorney to sit around in court for hours at a time at $200 or more per hour).

2. The other judges are freed up to handle the contested estates, which are also processed more quickly and more cheaply.

[added 3/18/08: Another idea, based on my observation of court this morning -- a LOT of court activity involves attorneys asking for routine continuances, which are of course routinely granted. Again, if the parties agree and a judge agrees, why do the attorneys need to sit around in court -- wasting their time and their clients' money -- waiting to be heard? Can't the additional judge mentioned above handle these situations too?]