What can you do to make sure your power of attorney will be honored? Ask your bank, brokerage house, IRA or other retirement plan provider, and insurance companies if they will honor your power of attorney and ask for their response in writing. If they say they will only honor powers of attorney on their… Read More
Sometimes banks and other financial institutions, such as brokerage houses and insurance companies, refuse to honor a power of attorney when they think the document is “stale,” that is, a significant amount of time has passed since the POA was executed. This refusal means that an agent may have a useless document if it was… Read More
A power of attorney (POA) is a standard part of every estate plan. In this document the client appoints an agent to take care of the principal’s finances, bills, investments, taxes and other financial matters. It used to be that the authority of an agent acting under a power of attorney was not questioned. Now,… Read More
Questions about the capacity of the testator can be resolved by direct testimony of the testator. The testator is there, thus able to answer questions, explain his or her intentions, correct misapprehensions and eliminate ambiguities. Beneficiaries would have to consider carefully their complaints or contests. In some jurisdictions, guardian or conservatorship proceedings are used in… Read More
Most of the United States use post-mortem probate. A person’s will is submitted for probate after his or her death. The idea is that after the testator is dead, the will is read and the testator’s estate is distributed in accordance with his wishes. I always thought there should be some procedure to validate a… Read More
In January of 1972, the Court agreed to hear the Estate of Tafel. The children of the decedent, Tafel, were enjoying the income of a trust created in his Will, with the remainder to be distributed to his child’s issue, if any, and if none, the remainder was to be given over to the other… Read More
The question of the rights of inheritance of adopted persons has a long history in this Commonwealth. Until 1855, adoption needed the approval of the state legislature. Then the legislature got out of the adoption business, moving it to the judicial system. The Wills Acts of 1855, 1887, 1889 and 1911 all stated that adopted… Read More
The Uniform Law Commission has released a new proposed act for enactment by the states called the Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (UFADAA). The theory behind the new uniform act is if the fiduciary would have access to a tangible or intangible asset, then the fiduciary will also have access to a similar… Read More
One of my favorite readers told me about a great software program for organizing your passwords and other confidential information and keeping them secure. It’s called Password Plus from DataViz, Inc. and it is available for iPhone, iPad, Android phone, Android tablet, and Windows and Mac computers. Each user gets a free Samepage account which… Read More
To pick up where we left off, here is part II of this four part series. Provide for Access We are often told never to write down our passwords and to make them secure by choosing ones with letters and numbers and special characters that no one will be able to guess. That is exactly… Read More