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

Although decedent’s ex-wife had been a named beneficiary on an IRA he established in 2000, their 2005 property settlement agreement allowed assets to be transferred into each party’s separate IRA and husband later transferred his assets into a second and ...

Tagged with: U.S. District Court - Western District Wills & Trusts

During Prohibition, a land trust made perfect sense. The unusual form of property ownership allows one or more owners to place their property in trust, with a trustee managing day-to-day operations. The twist: The true owners, whose identity remains confidential, ...

Tagged with: Alexandria Circuit Court Million-Dollar Defense Verdicts Real Estate Wills & Trusts

The revocable living trust is a very useful and popular estate planning tool, recommended by most estate planning attorneys across the U.S. and used as the central estate planning document by millions of Americans. The primary benefit of the revocable ...

Tagged with: Elder Law Wills & Trusts

In this suit involving competing claims to life insurance proceeds, a Norfolk Circuit Court holds that decedent’s widow, who was replaced by decedent’s daughter as his guardian and conservator, could be removed by the daughter as a beneficiary on decedent’s ...

Tagged with: Judge Mary Jane Hall Norfolk Circuit Court Virginia Circuit Courts Wills & Trusts

A Rappahannock County Circuit Court grants a widow’s motion for partial summary judgment recognizing her right to all testator husband’s personal property and real estate “currently” in the testator’s name, interpreted as property owned at the time of the testator’s ...

Tagged with: Judge Thomas D. Horne Rappahannock County Circuit Court Virginia Circuit Courts Wills & Trusts

In this dispute over ownership of decedent’s individual retirement account, the Abingdon U.S. District Court denies the IRA custodian’s motion to join decedent’s ex-wife as a necessary party by making her an involuntary plaintiff. Although decedent and the ex-wife divorced ...

Tagged with: Judge James P. Jones U.S. District Court - Western District Wills & Trusts

The Virginia State Bar Legal Ethics Committee has withdrawn two 1990 legal ethics opinions out of concern they might lead lawyers astray in matters involving powers of attorney. The two opinions – LEO 1313 and 1339 – take the view ...

Tagged with: Bar Associations Ethics Virginia State Bar Wills & Trusts

Call it a finger on the scale of justice. The law sometimes gives an advantage to one side in a lawsuit, allowing a legal “presumption” about some key fact in the case. Presumptions can be overcome, but how much weight ...

Tagged with: Alexandria Circuit Court Justice Cleo E. Powell Justice Cynthia D. Kinser Justice Donald W. Lemons Justice Elizabeth A. McClanahan Justice LeRoy F. Millette Jr. Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn Justice William C. Mims Supreme Court of Virginia News Wills & Trusts