Before he died in 1992, Norbert Eimer set up a family trust. Upon his and his wife’s death, everything was to go to their kids. A Power of Appointment allowed each child to pass on their inheritance to others through…
Dad’s Last Wishes Survive Tammy’s Last Stand
Frank and Louise Gomez’s love story sounds like something out of Hollywood. He proposed, she accepted. Yet before they could marry, Frank gets called up to go to war. Fearing that he may not return from Korea, Frank calls off…
Listen to Dolly: Get Your Empire in Order
We may always love her—but Dolly Parton is preparing for a world without her in it. At 74, the seemingly immortal country icon may be more popular than at any time in her 50-plus-year career, appearing everywhere from inspiring pandemic…
Trustee Has Consumer Credit Protections
After her sister Lou died, it fell to Maxine Gilliam to take care of her niece. Maxine became the successor trustee and took on the most rigorous fiduciary duties known to the law. The vast responsibilities of the job included…
Protect Your Assets from Untrustworthy Trustees
The five children whose fathers died in a 2008 explosion at the Imperial Sugar Refinery in Port Wentworth, Pennsylvania suffered the grief of losing a parent. Sacked Chatham County Probate Court clerk Kim Birge added financial salt to their emotional…
Greedy Nephew Loses With Last Minute Power of Attorney for Life Insurance
A routine doctor’s appointment started it all for the family. During an exam, Ray Razo was told he had a serious condition and sent directly to a hospital for emergency tests. They learned he had the unthinkable: stage 4 pancreatic…
Grandson Had a Right to Notice That He Got the Heave-Ho
McKie Roth died in 1988 with a will that established a trust for his wife, Yvonne. Upon her death, the trustee was to distribute twenty-five percent of the trust assets to her son from a prior marriage and twenty-five percent…
Court Refused to Buy Estate’s Dirty Art Valuation
The Estate of Eva Franzen Kohlman included two Old Master paintings, Village Kermesse with Dance Around the Maypole (“Maypole”) and Orpheus Charming the Animals. Both were filthy on the day of death. The Estate’s expert appraiser, George Wachter, claimed that the dirt…
Utah Sister Has No Standing in Sibling Rivalry
Grethe Jensen had two daughters, Kari in California and Trine in Utah. Kari urged her 89-year-old mother to sell her house and buy a place jointly with Kari in Ventura so that Kari could care for her. Things soon went…
Daughter Has Standing to Challenge Mom’s Last-Minute Disinheritance
Back in the 1980s, Joan Lee Maynord and her husband Bob set up a family trust for their six children. After Bob’s death in 1993, sole trustee Joan oversaw it for two decades, with all of their children designated as…
Kids Prevail Over Christian School, Church, Ole Miss, and Boykin Spaniels
Barry Blackburn was fighting late-stage cancer when he asked his aide for a will to preserve his “family legacy”: hundreds of acres of farmland and lakefront properties in Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee that had been in the Blackburn family since…
Son Loses His Family War Over Dad’s Advances on Inheritance
Many parents use the word “consequences” to try to make children think twice about the decisions they make. David Sachs followed through for real. Anything he gave to his kids was added to what he called his “Permanent Record.” When…