Estate Planning, Probate & Elder Law Attorneys

» Sources say elderly investors lost millions in fraud

A charitable gift annuity allows a donor to give cash or property to a non-profit charity in exchange for fixed annuity payments which the donor and sometimes a spouse will receive during their lifetimes.

» Her Fearful Symmetry, the Victorians, and Decapitation Provisions

The holiday break gave me a chance to finish Audrey Niffenegger's Her Fearful Symmetry, which I mentioned in my last post. There are a few references to probate and estate planning in the novel, but this is my favorite -- it's a quote given by one of the main characters (Robert) while he gives a tour of London's Highgate Cemetery (which plays a major role in the book).

"Before modern medical technology, people had a difficult time determining when someone was really dead. You might think that death would be pretty blatant, but there were a number of famous cases in which a dead body sat up and went on living, and many Victorians got the jim-jams just thinking about the possibility of being buried alive.

Being a practical people, they attempted to find solutions to the problem. The Victorians invented a system of bells with strings attached that went through the ground and into the coffin, so if you woke up underground you could pull on your bell till someone came to dig you up. There's no record of anyone being saved by one of these devices. People made all sorts of odd stipulations in their wills, such as asking to be decapitated as insurance against an undesired revival."

A Will with a decapitation provision? Excellent!

» AIG to pay out $100M in bonuses to crisis-causing unit: report
 

» Property Schedules in Trusts

Here's a question I get a fair amount: "Should we list all of our property on a schedule attached to our living trusts?" I see trusts (usually older ones) with schedules attached, but my answer is typically "no." Property changes -- we buy a new house, switch our investment accounts from one custodian to another, and change our life insurance policies. To my mind, the schedule can raise confusion -- why does it list Schwab account #12345678 when no records for this account can be found?

A better solution is to make a list of your property, including how it's titled (or who the beneficiaries are), and put that list with your original estate planning documents. And make sure to update it every year or so.

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