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  • Dispute Resolution for Trustees and Personal Representatives

    Dispute Resolution for Trustees and Personal Representatives
    Jan 26 2025
    If you are acting as personal representative of an estate, or as trustee, you might want to know how you can facilitate dispute resolution. Good news: Arizona law gives you a couple of good dispute resolution tools. Let us explain what they are and how they might help you to wrap up the trust or estate you're administering.
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    15 Min.
  • Your Out-of-State Real Estate and Your Estate Plan

    Your Out-of-State Real Estate and Your Estate Plan
    Jan 19 2025
    If you have any interest in out-of-state real estate, it can significantly complicate your estate planning process. Why? Because one primary motivation in estate planning is to avoid probate. And real estate in two (or more) different states makes it more likely that multiple probate proceedings could be required. So how do we deal with out-of-state real estate in planning for your estate? We often recommend that clients consider creating a trust. Usually (but not in every circumstance) that means a revocable living trust. But that's not enough by itself. In order to avoid probate we're likely to recommend that even your out-of-state real estate should be transferred to your new trust. We can handle the transfer of your Arizona real property, but we'll need to involve an attorney in the other state to handle transfer of your property in the other state(s). That means paying additional legal fees and increasing some of the complication. Of course, failure to transfer those interests exposes your estate to the very same complications, but at a more-expensive level. Often, the interest our clients have in out-of-state real estate might be a fractional interest. They might, for example, co-own a vacation cottage along with other family members or friends. Those arrangements may also complicate your estate planning.
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    11 Min.
  • We Know That Furniture and Accessories Matter to Our Clients

    We Know That Furniture and Accessories Matter to Our Clients
    Jan 12 2025
    Furniture and accessories matter in a law office like ours. Of course we want to have attractive and functional fixtures. But we also recognize that our client base includes people with various kinds of limitations. We also know that we need to accommodate family members, caregivers and equipment that might come into our waiting room. Making the furniture and accessories work well in our environment is a constant process. We're now in the process of making our third change of chairs, for example. It's very hard to get attractive chairs that can be moved fairly easily but not so easily that they are dangerous. And the same issues extend to other office functionality. How accessible are our bathrooms (Spoiler alert: very)? Is the coffee/tea/soda/water station inviting, functional and attractive (we think so)? We keep watching our own furniture and accessories decisions, and looking for internal improvements. We are proud of what we're doing and want to call attention to the effort. We also want our work on the office environment to be invisible. Feel free to notice; we probably won't talk about it again. But we'd like to think our clients will notice on some level, even if they don't call it out to us.
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    10 Min.
  • Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) January Update

    Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) January Update
    Jan 5 2025
    Very recently we updated our audience about the surprising changes in the Corporate Transparency Act. That's the federal law that requires owners of limited liability companies (LLCs), family limited partnerships (FLPs) and other entities to file a form with a new federal agency. Now we have another piece of news: a January update on the CTA. As we explained earlier, a federal court had ruled that the entire CTA was unconstitutional, and no one would have to file. Then a federal appellate court ruled that the lower court's injunction exceeded its authority and entities would still have to file their Business Ownership Information (BOI) reports. Then the federal agency in charge (FinCEN) gave everyone until January 13 to file, reflecting the almost two-week period during which the injunction was in effect. Here's the latest: the same appellate court that struck down the injunction has now restored it. For now, no one has to file and no penalties will accrue. The appellate court will hear arguments in mid-March, and we'll see what happens then. In the meantime, it's actually pretty easy to file, and there's nothing stopping LLCs and other entities from doing so. You might want to consider filing even though you don't have to. We explain -- and discuss.
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    12 Min.
  • When We See One Spouse Becoming Incapacitated

    When We See One Spouse Becoming Incapacitated
    Dec 29 2024
    Too often we see one spouse of a client couple becoming incapacitated. Of course it's also one of the things we help plan for, but it still causes problems. Problems for the well spouse, naturally. But also problems for the couple's lawyers. It's not about us, but we do run into conflict problems when counseling half of a couple we have represented. The conflicts can be legal, practical -- and ethical. Today we talk about what that can sometimes mean.
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    13 Min.
  • How Will the 2024 Election Affect Estate Planning?

    How Will the 2024 Election Affect Estate Planning?
    Dec 15 2024
    The 2024 election is over. But 2025 was already going to be a confusing year for estate planning, and that promises to be even more true now. We talk about what might happen -- recognizing that it's all speculation at this point -- under a new administration and new Congress. Our prediction: we probably won't know what -- if anything -- needs to be done until well into next year. There is actually some certainty. Or at least confidence. For most people, there won't be any important change in their estate plan. That's because current estate tax limitations kick in at almost $14 million. That figure is unlikely to drop below about $7 million. So most of the uncertainty is for the quite wealthy. But the 2024 election will likely unsettle many of the expectations and plans for others, as well.
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    10 Min.
  • Corporate Transparency Act Update

    Corporate Transparency Act Update
    Dec 8 2024
    In this week's podcast, we give you a Corporate Transparency Act update. The CTA is still set to require nearly every LLC and small corporation, plus many other family business entities, to file identifying information before December 31 of this year. But a brand-new court case out of Texas may have changed the rules. Or not. We wrote about the CTA in our weekly newsletter a few months ago, and updated our coverage earlier this month. As we explained then, the Act requires anyone with more than a 25% interest in many kinds of entities to provide personal identifying information through a new government agency, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (or FinCEN). As we explain in this week's podcast, that structure was upended by a federal court holding that the FinCEN system for registration violates the U.S. Constitution. For the moment, the government is enjoined from requiring reports. But be careful about relying on that news. The federal government has appealed, there is a change in administrations coming, and the deadline (though suspended) still looms. What does that all mean? It means that our Corporate Transparency Act update boils down to: stay tuned.
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    11 Min.
  • Jordan Young, Lawyer

    Jordan Young, Lawyer
    Nov 24 2024
    Longtime Fleming & Curti, PLC, law clerk Jordan Young is a lawyer. For now, a young lawyer. She's been working with and for us for almost two years -- all through her last year of law school, studying for the bar and waiting for results. But now she's an honest-to-goodness lawyer. And we couldn't be happier or prouder. If you've been in our office in the past couple of years, you've likely met Jordan. She has been deeply involved in meeting clients, drafting documents and following up on details. Now she gets to do more -- practicing elder law with the rest of (Elizabth Friman, Amy Matheson and Robert Fleming).
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    12 Min.