Graber & Johnson Law Group LLC Blog

Why You Need an Estate Attorney

When a loved one passes away, it is a good idea to get the assistance of an estate attorney, if for no other reason than to deal with all of the paperwork.

The government has many things it is very particular about.  However, you are not likely to notice one of those things very much. That is that property all needs to be traceable to a particular owner or owners.

This is important to the government for tax purposes. However, as you do not generally get all your property at one time, it is not always that noticeable. It is not a lot of paperwork for most individual pieces of property.

When someone passes away, things change. Then there is a lot of property that needs to change ownership and there is a lot of paperwork that needs to be done at once, as U.S. News & World Report discusses in "How to Deal With the Paperwork Scramble After a Spouse Dies."

It is easy to get overwhelmed and make costly mistakes when there is that much paperwork to fill out and file in such a short period of time. Those mistakes require even more paperwork and time to fix. People who are grieving and who do not know all the things that need to be done, make these mistakes all the time.

There is a good way to avoid most mistakes. Hire an estate attorney who can help with the process. The attorney knows what needs to be done and has staff to help with the paperwork.

Reference: U.S. News & World Report (June 19, 2018) "How to Deal With the Paperwork Scramble After a Spouse Dies."

Michael Jackson Estate Sues Disney

The Michael Jackson estate has seen so much litigation that it should probably get bulk discounts for court and lawyer's fees. The latest litigation has the estate suing the Walt Disney Company.

There might never have been a more contentious estate than that of Michael Jackson. Every few months, just when it seems things have died down, the estate is back in the news because it has been sued or is suing someone itself.

The latest case is over a documentary produced by the Walt Disney Company. In the documentary, footage of Jackson's children was used and short clips of two of his songs were also included. The estate claims this is copyright infringement and that Disney did not even ask permission to use the material.

Disney claims it did not need permission, because it was making a documentary. TMZ reported on this case in "Michael Jackson Estate Sues The Walt Disney Co. You've Got Balls For Exploiting MJ's Kids!!"

The estate does have a duty to protect any copyrights entrusted to it. If someone were to make a movie and use an entire Michael Jackson song in it, then the estate would need to file a lawsuit, if the song had been used without permission. However, in this case the estate might be a little overzealous.

Copyright does allow for the use of material without permission, if that use falls under the fair use doctrine. Doctrine normally does allow for short clips of material to be used and more material can be used, if it is done for educational purposes.

Reference: TMZ (May 30, 2018) "Michael Jackson Estate Sues The Walt Disney Co. You've Got Balls For Exploiting MJ's Kids!!"

Joint Tenancy Is a Bad Idea

Adding a child as the joint tenant of your home to avoid probate is always a very bad idea.

Some bad ideas in estate planning never seem to go away. No matter how many times estate planning attorneys try to tell people that the ideas are bad, people continue to make the same mistakes.

One common mistake is when people try to do their own estate planning to get around probate. For example, a widow may add an adult child as a joint tenant on the deed to her home. While it is true that if all goes according to plan, the child will inherit the house after his mother passes away without the need for probate. This approach can be a bad idea.

Why? Normally, the trouble comes because the child has a creditor who can attach the home to pay off the child’s debts.  However, there are other potential issues, as was recently discussed in the Napa Valley Register in "Can new wife inherit home?"

In this case, a married couple added their daughter to the deed as a joint tenant. The wife passed away, which made the father and daughter co-owners of the home. The father then remarried to a much younger woman.

The daughter refused to give up ownership and allow for a new deed allowing the new wife to inherit the home. When the father passes away, the daughter will inherit the home and be free to throw the new wife out if she wants.

Instead of looking for ways to avoid probate on your own, go to an estate planning attorney for assistance. The attorney can give you better ways to accomplish your goals and help you avoid these types of problems.

Reference: Napa Valley Register (April 5, 2018) "Can new wife inherit home?"

Arthur Miller's Archives

A fight over the archives of the late author Arthur Miller pitted two deep-pocketed educational institutions against each other.

Arthur Miller passed away in 2003.  However, literary scholars still have not had the opportunity to review his archived journals, notes and letters.

Why?

The dispute over where those archives should go has only recently been settled.

During his life, Miller had a close relationship with the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. On a couple of different occasions, Miller sent the center several boxes of his archive to the Ransom Center for safe-keeping.

He appears to have made it clear in his correspondence, that he wanted the Ransom Center to be the permanent home for the archives.

Despite that preference, Yale inspected the archives and offered Miller's estate $2.7 million for them.

After a heated dispute, the Ransom Center matched the offer, as The New York Times reported in "Inside the Battle for Arthur Miller's Archive."

The problem appears to have stemmed from the fact that Miller never formally left his archive to the Ransom Center.

No estate planning document was created making his preference legally binding. Therefore, his estate fulfilled its duty to maximize the amount of money it could get for the works.

It is not clear that they have that much value commercially, even if they do contain some letters and discussions about Miller's second wife, Marilyn Monroe.

The educational institutions were willing to pay for the prestige of housing the archives of the celebrated playwright.

Reference: New York Times (Jan. 9, 2018) "Inside the Battle for Arthur Miller's Archive."

The Challenge of Compensating Shooter's Victims

Despite his higher than average personal wealth, there are significant challenges to making sure that all of Stephen Paddock's victims are properly compensated.

It still is not clear why Stephen Paddock decided to commit mass murder by shooting at Las Vegas concert goers from his hotel window. He was relatively well-off and had not been in trouble as far as anyone knows.

Despite the mystery surrounding his motivations, his victims and their families would like to be compensated for his actions.

The good news is that his estate is worth approximately $5 million. That money would ordinarily go to his mother, since Paddock is not known to have had an estate plan.  However, Paddock's family has indicated they have no interest in his estate.

The bad news is that there are so many victims, it will be difficult to compensate them all, as The New York Times reports in "The Las Vegas Gunman Was Rich. Will His Wealth Go to the Victims?"

There are some challenges to making sure that all the money goes to the victims.

The first is that the estate could be rolled into an existing victims' compensation fund that has already raised $22 million.  However, all of the victims might not be eligible for compensation under the fund's rules.

The second challenge is that many victims are filing independent claims and lawsuits against the estate.

The case is very complicated and the attorneys who are working on it need to be compensated for their time, but not so much that there is nothing left for the victims.

Reference: New York Times (Dec. 23, 2017) "The Las Vegas Gunman Was Rich. Will His Wealth Go to the Victims?"

Charles Manson's Will Filed With Court

The man who claimed to be Charles Manson's friend and sole heir, has now filed a will in court and says he is prepared to fight anyone who contests it.

At first it was not clear who would inherit Charles Manson's estate or if anyone would even want it, despite having some monetary value.

However, it quickly came out that Manson had drafted a will in prison. He left everything to a longtime pen pal who had visited him in prison.

That man at first preferred to remain anonymous and left open the question of why someone would become friends with Manson.

The will has been filed in court and the man has been revealed to be Mark Channels, as the Daily Mail reports in "Charles Manson's pen pal files the infamous killer's last will and testament in court after saying 'he'll go into the ring' if anyone challenges the document."

It turns out that Channels worshipped Manson and even had a shrine to the cult leader in his home. Channels has already issued a warning to anyone who might contest the will and stated that he is prepared to fight for Manson's estate.

Manson does have a few living relatives who might want to contest the will.  However, at the time of the article they had not done so. They still have roughly have 100 days to file with the court, if they so choose.

Whoever inherits Manson's estate can expect to earn some money from collectors and could also see some money from music royalties.

Reference: Daily Mail (Nov. 28, 2017) "Charles Manson's pen pal files the infamous killer's last will and testament in court after saying 'he'll go into the ring' if anyone challenges the document."

Battle Over War Hero's Remains

Two widows are fighting over the remains of a WWII veteran, since they both want him buried near them.

Paul Lewis Morigi fought for the U.S. during World War II. While in England, he met and fell in love with Olive Murphy.

The two got married in 1944.  However, the marriage did not last long.

They divorced when Olive decided she did not want to move to America with him. She feared she would miss her family too much.

Morigi went on to be a successful banker and a very wealthy man. He also got remarried to an American, Muriel Morigi. They were married for 40 years and had two children together.

At the age of 92, Paul Lewis Morigi divorced Muriel and moved to England, where he remarried Olive Murphy.

He recently passed away and now the two widows are fighting, according the Daily Mail in "Widows at war: British and American wives of war hero banker both want him buried in their own local cemetery - on opposite sides of the Atlantic - so they can visit his grave."

For now at least, the dispute between the two women does not appear to be over Morigi's assets but over where Morigi should be buried.

They both would like him buried close to them, so they can visit his grave easily. Of course, this could easily turn into a fight over his assets later.

It is not clear whether Morigi left any instructions for where and how he would like to be buried. However, it is clear that he probably should have done so.

Leaving instructions for your loved ones regarding your funeral and burial preferences can help alleviate these issues.

Reference: Daily Mail (Nov. 3, 2017) "Widows at war: British and American wives of war hero banker both want him buried in their own local cemetery - on opposite sides of the Atlantic - so they can visit his grave."

The Stored Communications Act

One of the more difficult things for families to do after someone passes away is to gain access to the deceased's digital accounts. A federal law is part of the reason for that.

When someone passes away, one of the many things families often want to do is gain access to the digital accounts the deceased had. These include emails, financial accounts and social media accounts.

Sometimes access is wanted so important financial and business transactions can be completed, if necessary. Other times the families would just like to have access for their own information and to close the accounts.

The terms of services of most digital providers make it difficult to gain access.

A federal law, the Stored Communications Act, also makes it difficult as the Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog discusses in "Court Holds Personal Representative May Provide Lawful Consent Under Stored Communications Act."

The Stored Communications Act is essentially a privacy law.

It prevents providers from giving access to some user personal data without the consent of the user.

In a recent Massachusetts court case, Yahoo cited the act as the reason it could not give access to emails sought by the personal representative of a deceased account holder's estate.

The court declared that, under the act, the personal representative could give the necessary consent to gain access to the data. However, the court did not make this mandatory. The court instead decided that it was still up to the company whether to comply with the request.

Many states are attempting to make it easier to access digital information after someone passes away.

Nevertheless, it appears the law still has a long way to go.

Reference: Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog (Oct. 20, 2017) "Court Holds Personal Representative May Provide Lawful Consent Under Stored Communications Act."

Jerry Garcia's Estate Difficulties

It is not always the best idea to name a close family member to be the executor of your estate. It can cause problems, as was the case for Jerry Garcia's estate.

It probably never should have been assumed that Jerry Garcia's estate administration would go smoothly, after he passed away in 1995. At first, it did seem that maybe there would not be any major problems.

However, Garcia passed away after being married three times, having four children and having one stepchild.

Even after his third wife threw the first two wives out of his funeral, it did not necessarily mean the estate administration itself would go wrong. No one challenged his will, for example.

The big mistake came when the third wife, Debra Koons, was chosen to administer the estate, as the Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog discussed in "The Wrong Executor Can Make Family Drama Worse, As Jerry Garcia's Heirs Discovered."

The problem for Garcia's estate is that his other heirs objected to many of the decisions that Koons made. They felt she was acting in her own interests and not in the best interests of everyone.

This led to constant family squabbles and made the estate administration more costly and time-consuming than it needed to be.

The problems should have been anticipated.

It would have been wiser to have an independent professional hired to handle the administration of the estate. That might not have been a solution to all of the problems, but it would have taken much of the family drama out of the situation.

Reference: Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog (Oct. 12, 2017) "The Wrong Executor Can Make Family Drama Worse, As Jerry Garcia's Heirs Discovered."

Filing a Claim Against an Estate

When a person passes away owing debts, it is important that creditors follow the proper procedures to make their claims against the estate.

Most types of debt do not die with the debtor. If there are any assets in the estate, then the estate is responsible to pay those debts.

The executor of the estate is required to notify any known creditors that the debtor has passed away and then to pay the debt, if possible.

However, no creditor should ever rely on an executor doing so. The debt might not be known or the executor might not know what his responsibilities are.

Creditors who learn that a debtor has passed away, should take affirmative steps to file a claim against the estate, which must be done following proper procedures. Things can get even more complicated, if the deceased put all of his or her assets in a trust, leaving nothing in an estate.

Under such circumstances the creditor needs to file against the trust, as the NWI Times points out in "Filing claims against a trust."

Filing a claim against a trust, can be even more complicated than filing against an estate, or maybe not.

It depends on the state. Every state has its own laws and procedures that need to be followed for a creditor to properly file a claim to receive the debt of a debtor who has passed away.

For this reason, it is extremely important for creditors to contact a local estate attorney to help them with the process. This is something that must be done without delay,  since the statutes of limitations for these claims are often very short, again depending on the state

Reference: NWI Times (July 2, 2017) "Filing claims against a trust."