This special section focuses on Trusts & Estates Practice. It contains stories that hit on some of the current issues in this field, including: Elective share. A Northern Virginia firm will be trying a malpractice suit this fall relating to ...

Tagged with: Wills & Trusts

Virginia lawyers have had a tool to validate wills that fail to meet the strict requirements of authentic­ity for almost nine years. Lawyers report increasing use of what has been called the “harmless error rule” for wills that don’t quite ...

Tagged with: de facto will Judge Catherine Hammond Judge Robert J. Smith Supreme Court of Virginia Wills & Trusts

Some time ago we received a call from an attorney who was afraid he might be facing a lawsuit for caus­ing a client to lose the $250,000 federal tax exemption on the sale of the client’s principal residence. It seemed ...

Tagged with: Taxation Wills & Trusts

An often-neglected area in the world of benefit plan administration is the beneficiary designation form. Many participants complete their beneficiary designations incorrect­ly because they don’t read the in­structions carefully or don’t under­stand the instructions. Beneficiary designation forms are often filed ...

Tagged with: Wills & Trusts

Historically, estate planning has focused more on estate, gift, and generation-skipping taxes, and less on income taxes. Therefore, most estate plans for affluent cou­ples include what is often referred to as “A-B Trusts.” Following the substantial changes made by the ...

Tagged with: Taxation Wills & Trusts

A Loudoun County Circuit Court denies cross-motions for summary judgment filed by the parties in a suit alleging defendants committed legal malpractice in asserting a claim for the spousal elective share by filing a counterclaim against decedent’s estate in the ...

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

A Charlottesville Circuit Court orders decedent’s long-time attorney who is also his executor to reimburse the estate by $10,320 to cover old legal fees the at­torney billed to decedent and separate attorney’s fees paid for legal advice the executor sought ...

Tagged with: Charlottesville Circuit Court Judge Richard E. Moore Virginia Circuit Courts Wills & Trusts

Divorce lawyers running a checklist with new clients should not over­look planning for special-needs family members, say lawyers with expertise in preparing for such needs. Disability and special needs issues arise in more families every year, according to Arlington lawyer ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations Wills & Trusts

Letters sent by two brothers to the trustee of their father’s trust and the lawyer who prepared trust documents requesting that they preserve documents relating to changes to their detriment in the trust’s plan executed by the father in August ...

Tagged with: Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn Supreme Court of Virginia Wills & Trusts

A close contest over a no-contest clause in a trust has left estate-planning lawyers studying a 50-page decision from the Supreme Court of Virginia handed down earlier this month. Lawyers are looking for clues on drafting such clauses, which have ...

Tagged with: Henrico County Circuit Court Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn Supreme Court of Virginia News Wills & Trusts