Estate Planning, Probate & Elder Law Attorneys

» Retirement is an anachronism

» Buckley Probate Mess

This is a sort of slimy story about William F. Buckley, his son Christopher (the author, about whom I've previously blogged), and Christopher's son Jonathan. Evidently Christopher cheated on his wife with a woman named Irina Woelfle, and she got pregnant. Christopher hasn't had much, if anything, to do with the son since his birth, although he does pay child support. Now Christopher's wealthy father has died, leaving language in his Will that explicitly disinherits Jonathan.

Is that fair? The article seems to think it isn't, although I would disagree. There seems to be a blurring of the lines between William's duty to a grandchild he may never see, and Christopher's duty to his son. We can believe that Christopher owes the child more (emotionally and financially) than $3,000 per month, but I don't have a problem with the disinheritance language in William's Will. Although it does sound a bit cold, especially if you read it in William's ridiculously affected voice. Maybe I should do an MP3 of my imitation?

» Gift and estate planner to speak at Inland Empire Planned Giving Roundtable

"Year End Strategies for Philanthropic and Tax Planning" is topic of the next meeting of the Empire Planned Giving Roundtable.

» How Much Information Should the Executor Give?

It's always interesting when I'm facing the same situation in two different cases but from opposite perspectives. That's where I find myself with respect to the following issue:

beneficiary (child of X) has questions about the actions taken by executor (also child of X) before X's death, as an agent under X's power of attorney

The question is, to account or not to account? By which I mean, does the executor take the time to prepare an accounting of his or her actions as agent for the beneficiary? In Illinois, such an accounting is not required -- in order to obtain it, the beneficiary would have to file a citation action. But my preference, as an attorney trained in alternative dispute resolution, is to try to resolve court battles before they start. So, what's the harm in providing such an accounting, if it can actually allay the beneficiary's fears?

In my opinion there IS no harm, unless you are convinced that...

1. the beneficiary intends to start a court battle anyway; or

2. the beneficiary has acted unreasonably at other times, and you don't want to reward such behavior.

I guess these two points are related -- the executor has to make a cost/benefit analysis about whether it's worthwhile to provide the requested information. That means the beneficiary should strive to create an atmosphere in which there's a clear benefit offered to the executor for doing what is requested, and a clear detriment to NOT doing what's requested.

» A Rant

Can I tell you what I'm tired of right now? I'm tired of getting calls from old media folks -- Martindale, West, Thompson, what have you -- telling me that I should pay a bunch of money so that they can teach me how to compete on the internet. Let me tell you something, guys -- I'm already competing on the internet. I already get many, many GOOD clients as a result of my website and this blog. I don't need a bunch of huge corporations, who finally decided that they should figure out whether this web thing is going to stick around, calling me and acting like they are experts. They aren't.