Recently in Estate Law Category

One of the lesser known trusts that people might be able to use to maximize their federal estate tax exemptions is called an AB trust. It is created by married couples, so it would be useful to many readers.

Normally, when one spouse dies passing on his/her assets in a last will and testament, the estate will be taxed heavily before the beneficiaries receive it. However, to avoid this steep estate tax, spouses can set up an AB trust, where each spouse leaves their property to an irrevocable trust.

That's the short version. Now the long.

As the year draws to a close, looking back we find that there was some good news in the area of reverse mortgage loans in 2011, reports the New York Times.

Specifically, the surviving spouses of reverse mortgage loan holders were being put on the hook for the loan even if they weren’t a party to the original loan or listed on the papers. But after pressure from some lawsuits from the AARP Foundation, the Department of Housing and Urban Development backed off from its policy.

Under the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (OBRA) of 1993, each state had to develop and implement an estate recovery program.

Estate recovery is a program, required by federal law, whereby Medicaid members with qualified assets reimburse the taxpayers for long term care and home and community-based services provided through Medicaid. Funds are recovered from the member's estate, after death, for the cost of these services.

In New York, medicaid estate recovery is governed by Section 53 of Part H of Bill Number S2809. It states:

In May, Huguette Clark died at the age of 104. Clark was one of the last remnants of the gilded age as she was the heir of a copper fortune worth about $400 million, reports the Associated Press.

Clark was also known as a recluse in later years, and when her will revealed that she had cut out her family and friends, and instead left substantial gifts to her lawyer and accountant, the battle for the Huguette Clark estate was on.

We wrote before that to write a valid will in New York, you will need two witnesses. But while you pretty much have freedom to choose who you want to witness a will, you should be aware that should you choose the wrong witnesses, you may be adding a roadblock to the administration of your estate

So who should you choose as witnesses?

You may be wondering what happens to the debts of the deceased. For example, if your spouse or parent racked up a substantial amount of debt, do you have to personally pay the debts when they pass away?

Unfortunately, there is no easy answer to this question. While a beneficiary of someone's estate is generally not personally liable for the debts of the estate, that person can still see the potential inheritance reduced to nothing. And if the debt is joint -- like a home mortgage between spouses -- you may even be on the hook.

It can be stressful thinking about end of life issues. Thankfully, deciding who can be executors of a will does not have to be one of those stressful decisions.

An executor of a will oversees the disposition of your property and possessions after death. Duties of an executor can include finding the assets of the deceased and filing the will in the appropriate court.

Just about everyone should have an estate plan. If you have accumulated any possessions, you will want to have a plan in place for how to distribute these assets.

However, estate planning can be complicated -- even you don't have a substantial amount of assets -- and below are what we think are the top five estate planning mistakes to avoid:

Bequeathing foreign property in New York can be tricky. The rules basically differ depending upon the type of property being given away -- whether the property is real or personal property.

For real property, the rules for giving away property are determined by the rules of the jurisdiction where the land is located. So if you want to give away a home in New Jersey, you need to follow that state's rules for wills such as the rules regarding witnesses, signatures, and language in the will.

A little over a year after Frances Bean Cobain inheritance made the news, the 19-year-old daughter of Kurt Cobain made news again as she recently bought a home in West Hollywood.

Last year, on her 18th birthday, Frances Bean Cobain inherited 37 percent of her father’s estate, reports Forbes. Now, the young woman has shown some savvy buying a $1,825,000 home in the Hollywood hills and even knocking $65,000 off the asking price.