Our Blog - Surety Matters

  By it’s very nature, creating—and periodically updating, an estate plan requires us to involve others. Importantly, for example, when young children are involved, a guardian must be designated. Wills rely on personal representatives, typically…
Read Moreabout Estate Plans: It Takes a Village

  When Microsoft co-founder, Paul G. Allen died in 2018, his net worth was estimated at $20.3 billion. His sister Jody Allen has had the big role of executing his estate in line with his…
Read Moreabout Executing Paul Allen’s Estate

Mortgages, credit card bills and car loans are among the types of debt left behind upon the death of a loved one. What happens to these debts? Can the burden of payment be passed on…
Read Moreabout Inheriting Debt?

  Though a painful decision, parents can choose to leave a child out of the will. There is no law saying parents must leave assets to children—or divide their assets evenly among children. Estate planning…
Read Moreabout Disinheritance?

  Estate planning experts say that although adding a loved one to a bank account may seem like an efficient way to pass the associated assets forward when we die, doing so can actually lead…
Read Moreabout Joint Account? Cautionary Advice

  Although hopefully avoided through careful planning and good communication, significant disappointments, delays, and conflicts are not uncommon upon the death of a loved one. Hurt feelings alone are insufficient cause for initiating probate litigation….
Read Moreabout Probate Litigation: Outcomes?

  Being fair to children does not always mean ensuring assets are equally gifted via an estate plan. Age, health, special needs, educational and vocational goals are among the dynamics that can make doing what’s…
Read Moreabout When Being Fair Counts: Pot Trusts

  Depending on your news source, you may have heard that Wynonna and Ashely Judd inherited nothing from their famous mother, Naomi. Lawyers remind us that the appointment of Larry Strickland, Naomi’s husband of 33…
Read Moreabout Executing Naomi Judd’s Will

  Can two churches disinter and remove cremains (cremated remains) from a burial ground without the consent of the families involved? Reversing a judgment from the Probate Court, The Massachusetts Appeals Court found for the…
Read Moreabout Grave Appeal: Protecting Burial Grounds