Woodrow “Mac” Melvin, Jr. was on the winning side of In re Rosenstiel’s Will, 44 Fla. Supp. 92 (Fla. 11th Cir. Ct. June 24, 1976), a nationally significant probate case I wrote about here. Roy Cohn was a
The notoriously pugnacious Roy Cohn was a master manipulator and larger-than-life figure who first came to national prominence in the 1950s as Joe McCarthy’s ruthless attorney, and managed to keep himself in the spotlight for most of his life as
F.S. 733.702 tells us that “no claim for personal property in the possession of the personal representative” is binding on the estate unless filed within three months after first publication of notice to creditors.
Taken to the extreme, this statute
We’re living through the largest inter-generational wealth transfer in history. Much of that wealth will end up in someone’s trust. Not surprisingly, the jurisdictional competition among U.S. states to capture as much of that trust business as possible
Ever wonder why lawsuits against trustees name them as defendants both in their representative capacities as trustees and individually? The reason for that dual designation is usually because the claim seeks some kind of money judgment against the trustee, be
As practitioners we use heuristics—mental shortcuts or “rules of thumb”—all the time to navigate complex, uncertain, and time-sensitive legal challenges. These cognitive shortcuts usually serve us well, especially as we have more professional experience to draw upon. But sometimes those
“[P]ost mortem squabblings and contests on mental condition . . . have made a will the least secure of all human dealings, and made it doubtful whether in some regions insanity is not accepted as the normal condition of testators.”
Creditor claims against an estate must be paid to the extent allowed by the resources of each estate. But what happens when a creditor’s claim arises from the malfeasance of the personal representative? F.S. 733.609(1) tells us a personal representative
Not all payment demands against a probate estate are created equal. Some are subject to the filing deadlines applicable to probate creditor claims under F.S. 733.702 and F.S. 733.710. Many are not. Why does this matter? Because Florida’s ultra-short
If you’re a trustee, you can’t just quit and walk away leaving your former trust to fend for itself. Until a successor trustee’s appointed to replace you, F.S. 736.0707 tells us you remain duty-bound to pay all trust-related “debts, expenses,
