Surrogate John B. Riordan of Nassau County recently addressed an application to unseal adoption records for purposes of determining the heirs at law of a decedent who died intestate. Jaclene D’Agostino discusses the decision in this week’s blog entry.
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Action Dismissed For Failure to Join Beneficiaries
The Second Department recently addressed a trust rescission action in which the plaintiff failed to join certain remainder and charitable beneficiaries as parties. Jaclene D’Agostino explains the Court’s holding in this week’s blog entry.
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Court Cites Flaws in Article 17-A in Denying Guardianship Application
This week, Jaclene D’Agostino discusses a recent decision from New York County that has the potential to substantially impact the future of guardianship proceedings in Surrogate’s Courts.
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Trusts: Legally Protecting Assets from the Settlor’s Creditors
This week, Jaclene D’Agostino discusses the circumstances under which trusts assets are legally protected from the settlor’s creditors.
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Widow Barred from Bringing Legal Malpractice Action against Husband’s Estate Planning Attorneys
This week’s entry, written by Jaclene D’Agostino, discusses a recent New York County Supreme Court decision dismissing a widow’s legal malpractice claim against her husband’s estate planning attorneys. The rationale: lack of privity, despite the fact that the defendant attorneys also represented the widow in her own estate plans, and jointly with her husband in other matters.
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Amendments to Simultaneous Death Statute, EPTL 2-1.6
This week’s post discusses amendments to EPTL 2-1.6, the statute pertaining to the disposition of assets in circumstances of apparent simultaneous deaths.
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Probate of a Lost Will
This week’s entry discusses the requirements to probate a will when the original instrument has been lost.
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Beneficiary Participation Irrelevant to Allocation of Trustees’ Litigation Costs
Legal fees incurred by fiduciaries in connection wtih their stewardship are generally chargeable to a trust or estate as a whole. This week’s blog entry discusses a recent case in which non-objecting beneficiaries sought to allocate trustees’ litigation costs solely to the objecting parties’ interests.
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Parents of Decedent Have No Rights to Preserved Reproductive Tissue
Parents of a decedent, as administrators of his estate, recently sought ownership rights to the decedent’s frozen sperm specimens in hope of ultimately having a grandchild by a surrogate. The First Department’s decision is explained in this week’s entry.
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New Power of Attorney Legislation Effective September 1, 2009
Governor Paterson has signed legislation extending the effective date for the new Power of Attorney statute from March 1, 2009 to September 1, 2009. This provides an additional six months to learn about the significant amendments to GOL 5-1501, which were summarized in a previous posting.