WASHINGTON — The legal issue that spelled defeat for the estate of the late model and reality star Anna Nicole Smith in the long running battle over her late oil tycoon husband’s estate is, once again, before the justices of ...

Tagged with: Bankruptcy U.S. Supreme Court Wills & Trusts

A successor trust may sue a former trustee for allegedly failing to pay premiums on an $800,000 life insurance policy meant to fund the trust for the benefit of plaintiff trustee and his sister as beneficiaries of the trust set ...

Tagged with: Judge Melvin R. Hughes Jr. Richmond Circuit Court Virginia Circuit Courts Wills & Trusts

Although decedent’s son claims he may pursue a claim for wrongful denial of decedent’s bank funds because the estate has no creditors or beneficiaries, the Harrisonburg U.S. District Court dismisses the son’s suit alleging a bank’s refusal to honor a ...

Tagged with: Judge Michael F. Urbanski U.S. District Court - Western District Wills & Trusts

In this dispute between a woman who had been discussing divorce with her husband, who fatally shot himself after changing his life insurance beneficiary to his mother and giving his mother $10,000 in silver bars and $50,000 in cash, the ...

Tagged with: Judge Robert G. Doumar U.S. District Court - Eastern District Wills & Trusts

Citing “red flags of giant proportions,” a circuit judge has ordered the exhumation of a Shenandoah County man who died in 2011 and whose $2 million estate is at issue in a will contest.

Tagged with: Judge Dennis Lee Hupp Shenandoah County Circuit Court Wills & Trusts

DNA paternity testing produced by plaintiff is a “birth record” under Va. Code § 64.1-5.1(4)(i) and plaintiff is “excepted” from the proof of paternity requirements of Code § 64.1-5.1(4) in order to claim an interest in her deceased birth father’s ...

Tagged with: Judge David B. Carson Roanoke Circuit Court Virginia Circuit Courts Wills & Trusts

A trial court erred in dismissing portions of a complaint filed by decedent’s great-grandchildren against decedent’s neighbors and her sister, alleging certain substantial inter vivos financial transfers were the result of undue influence by defendants who allegedly were in confidential ...

Tagged with: Justice Lawrence L. Koontz Jr. Supreme Court of Virginia Wills & Trusts

The sole surviving child of a decorated Marine Corps officer who died at 91 loses her challenge to a 2008 Amended Trust that named decedent’s close companion, a widow who lived in the same retirement community for retired officers, as ...

Tagged with: Judge T.S. Ellis III U.S. District Court - Eastern District Wills & Trusts

Clients creating a trust face an important decision: Who should be in charge? While many clients might be inclined to pick a family member, that individual may lack the knowledge and expertise to manage a trust. A corporate trustee can ...

Tagged with: Wills & Trusts

Although husband could not personally sign the notice of elective share of his wife’s estate, due to his incapacity, the notice, signed and acknowledged by husband’s attorney-in-fact, constitutes a valid claim under Va. Code § 64.1-13, and the Fairfax Circuit ...

Tagged with: Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Robert J. Smith Virginia Circuit Courts Wills & Trusts