Happy New Year! Can you believe the first month of 2025 is already almost over? This month the Corporate Transparency Act, Social Security and the San Diego Padres were hot topics in elder law news.

Corporate Transparency Act Update

We have talked about the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) and the beneficial ownership reporting requirement a few times in this newsletter and on our podcast. If you have been following along, you know that the CTA requires many business owners to disclose ownership information to FinCEN in an effort to combat money laundering. The Act has faced legal challenges, which in December resulted in injunctions delaying the original December 31 deadline.

The latest update- on Thursday, the Supreme Court lifted the injunction. On Friday, the FinCEN Agency clarified that even though this injunction has been lifted, filing is still voluntary. There is a separate court case with an injunction that is still in effect.

So, what now? For now, reporting is still voluntary, but there is nothing stopping you from doing it. And, it’s not that hard to do. As Robert Fleming and Elizabeth Friman discuss in one of the most recent Elder Law Podcasts, you might want to consider filing even though you don’t have to.

Estate Planning

Is updating your estate plan one of your new years resolutions? If not, maybe it should be! Significant economic and regulatory changes are on the horizon and it’s best to be prepared. This article from Forbes explores some of the changes that are in the pipeline in 2025. These changes include the sunset of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, trends in digital asset planning, and wealth management industry consolidation.

Sheel Seidler, the widow of the San Diego Padres chairman Peter Seidler, filed a complaint in Texas probate court. She alleges that two of Mr. Seidler’s brothers have breached their fiduciary duty as trustees of the Seidler Trusts. The complaint comes after one of the brothers, John Seidler, was announced as the new control person of the Padres. In a letter to fans, Ms. Seidler alleges that as the sole beneficairy of the Seidler Trusts holding the rights over the Padres franchise, she should be the control person. The trustees argue that they have the right to designate the control person under the terms of the trust.

Last month, we talked about Warren Buffet’s advice to share your estate plan with your children. This article from Investopedia discusses other take aways from Warren Buffet’s estate planning advice. Some of the best nuggets of advice: review your estate plan every couple of years and consider what happens if your trustees can’t serve. Buffet’s children are over the age of 60 and, while he trusts them completely, he has also named younger successor trustees in case they his children are unable or unwilling to serve.

Social Security

On January 5, President Biden signed the Social Security Fairness Act into law. This law increases Social Security benefits for certain types of workers. This includes some teachers, fire fighters, police officers and other federal employees.

The US Government also recently recovered more than $31 million in payments that were made to people who had already died. This is just the beginning though. The funds were recovered as part of a five month pilot program that gave the Department of Treasury access to the Social Security Administrations extensive list of those who have died. The Department’s access to the file is set to last three years and during that time they anticipate they will be able to claw back $215 million.

Other stuff: