Category: Probate

A prominent Staten Island attorney has been accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from five clients, according to the Queens County District Attorney Richard A. Brown, who took over the case as a special prosecutor at the request of District Attorney Daniel Donovan’s office. Can you trust your attorney? When an attorney is […]

Are you childfree? Are you planning with an elder parent? Do any of your potential beneficiaries have special needs that must be taken into consideration? Are any of your beneficiaries minors? The first step of planning is to take a moment to consider what makes your situation unique. Although estate planning has many aspects, it’s good to start with the […]

With a little research, a family should be able to find a suitable home for their estate and leave a lasting legacy — whether they are rich, Bill-Gates-rich, or not wealthy at all. Leaving an ongoing charitable legacy is not just for the wealthy. You do not need to be Bill and Melinda Gates with […]

In what likely foretells a bitter probate battle to come, a judge ordered Wednesday that the body of wealthy Alamo Heights woman who died Tuesday not be cremated before an autopsy is performed. A woman with brain cancer passing away is not normally a mysterious event that would cause people to wonder about the cause […]

Most people want to avoid probate, and therefore, want to avoid the use of a will. The following are some key questions to address to determine if a trust is right for you. Is a trust right for you? Trusts have become so popular that many estate planning attorneys have gotten used to new clients […]

“I saw an alarming increase in the number of probate and trust litigation cases. It was just devastating families, and the attorneys’ fee were just consuming whatever estate was there,” said Sally Mulhern, whose office is at 155 Fleet St. “I didn’t want to see this trend continue. I wanted to do something to get […]

Some attorneys and judges believe that as the Baby Boom generation ages there will be an increase in the number of probate challenges to wills. A recent case in South Carolina is an extreme example of this. When Charles Deal, Sr., passed away his only surviving family members were a stepdaughter and a middle-aged, disabled […]

Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised. After all, Lou Reed was the man who famously crooned, “Hey babe, take a walk on the wild side.”  The late lead singer and guitarist of The Velvet Underground — and of course, a musician and songwriter with a successful, decades-long solo career — may have been a bit wild at […]

All too often, people go to great pains to write a will and put other estate-planning documents in place, only to have a court invalidate them. Are you sure your will can hold up in court? Review these three points to make sure your will is ironclad in the eyes of a judge. You Must […]

While 19 states recognized same-sex unions, as of the end of May 2014, 31 still didn’t. The rift means that couples must take special precautions to have the right estate and emergency-health care legal documents in place – and often on hand. Whether already married or planning to tie the knot soon, same-sex couples need […]