by Jody H. Hall, Paralegal As long as I have been a probate paralegal, and even prior when I worked in financial services, I have spoken about assets with beneficiary designations, including life insurance, retirement accounts and annuities passing outside of probate as if they were a foregone conclusion. Period. End of Story. However, some […]
by Kelly Dickson Cooper In my practice, I regularly answer questions regarding the permissibility and advisability of modifying irrevocable trusts. With the enactment of a decanting statute in Colorado in 2016, these types of requests will only increase. One of the major hurdles in modifying irrevocable trusts (and a trap for the unwary) is the […]
by Matthew Skotak The Oklahoma Supreme Court recently upheld a ruling that has required the Personal Representative of an Estate to take the necessary steps to transfer the deceased spousal unused election (DSUE) to the surviving spouse. The case stems from the rights created by the federal gift and estate tax laws regarding portability. More […]
by Kimberly K. Rutherford With income tax season upon us, we are inundated with warnings from the IRS to take extra caution when filing our individual income tax returns with identity theft on the rise. But identity theft also happens to Decedents. We recently had an estate that filed a final individual income tax return […]
by Carol Warnick Does the fact that a husband and wife create “mirror-image” wills or trusts mean that they have entered into a contract with their spouse to maintain the dispositive provisions in the document? The law in Colorado is very clear that no contract exists merely because the documents are “mirror-image” or reciprocal. Pursuant […]
by Jody H. Hall, Paralegal It is well documented that all of our lives have become more data-driven and we are practically tethered to our electronic devices. Therefore, it should not be surprising to realize that more and more of our assets, and those of our clients, have a digital component. What may be surprising, […]
by Kelly Dickson Cooper The rules and regulations surrounding the operation of family foundations contain traps for the unwary and prohibit self-dealing transactions. We regularly help families navigate the complex rules regarding self-dealing transactions for private foundations. These self-dealing rules tripped up the Donald J. Trump Foundation, which has admitted that it has engaged in […]
by Jessica J. Smith Charitable trusts are both valuable estate planning tools and excellent philanthropic devices. For instance, certain charitable trusts provide appealing tax benefits for donors creating charitable inter vivos trusts. While in most respects, charitable trusts are governed by the same state law concepts often discussed here on this blog (like fiduciary duty […]
by Matthew S. Skotak You may have previously read on this blog about digital assets, the impact they have on the administration of trusts and estates, the need for fiduciaries to access digital assets, and the privacy concerns that come along with such access. In order to address these issues, Colorado recently enacted the Revised […]