What is an Insolvent Estate? (Part 3)
In my blog post last week, I explained that when the assets of a decedent are insufficient to cover all estate debts, the debt is classified by priorities. Debts are entitled to be paid in a certain order of priority. Eventually, however, in the case of an insolvent estate we will get
What is an Insolvent Estate? Part 1
As I have written about previously in this blog, estate administration involves gathering the assets of the person who died, paying all debts and taxes owing, and distributing the remaining assets to the rightful heirs - determined either by a will if there is one or by state intestacy laws
Dispute Over a Retirement Account – Part 2
In my blog post last week I told you about a recent Wall Street Journal article that caught my eye. Jeffrey’s siblings sued to recover their brother’s retirement account. In 1987 Jeffrey designated his girlfriend at the time as the beneficiary of the account. He broke up with her in 1989 but never
Searching for Missing Heirs – Part 3
The last 2 weeks I have written about the increasing number of estate administration matters in our office in which there was no will and it is not clear who the heirs are. These are cases where the decedent had no spouse or children. We may know of the heirs on one
Searching for Missing Heirs – Part 2
In last week’s blog post I talked about how many people are alone without apparent family and that dying alone - from an estate administration perspective - raises issues such as identifying the rightful heirs. For people that don’t have close relationships, they probably have less reason to think about executing
Searching for Missing Heirs (Part 1)
There have been a number of stories in the media about an epidemic of loneliness among the elderly. This is in part because families are smaller and more spread out. From an estate administration perspective, this means that many of these same people are dying alone and without apparent or at
Considerations When Leaving Estates to Non-U.S. Citizen Beneficiaries – Part 3
In my last 2 weeks’ blog posts I have been discussing the issues related to leaving your assets to beneficiaries who are not U.S. citizens. This week I want to cover a couple of recent scenarios in our office. One involved a decedent who was a U.S. citizen, died without a will
Considerations When Leaving Estates to Non-U.S. Citizen Beneficiaries – Part 2
In my post last week, I answered the question whether leaving assets to a non-U.S. citizen triggers any additional tax when compared to a U.S. beneficiary. With the exception of a spouse, it generally makes no difference from an estate or inheritance tax standpoint. There are, however, other practical considerations to take
Why Does Estate Administration Take So Long? Part 5
In this last post of 5 I explain the reasons why the estate administration process takes as long as it does - why it isn’t as simple as getting appointed administrator and closing out all the decedent’s accounts and distributing them in a matter of days or weeks. This week we
When Does Estate Administration Take So Long? Part 4
In my post last week, I covered the complications that can arise if there is no personal representative named - either because there is no will or because none of the named executors in the will are able to serve. This week I discuss the difficulties when there are no clearly