New York Probate and Estate Administration Blog

The niece of a deceased ice cream chain owner has ended up in bankruptcy court, indicated a firm of New York Estate Planning Lawyers.
It is her assertion that she is the rightful heir and administrator of the ice cream fortune – not the foundation to which the money has gone. She already made several attempts in New York, before filing personal bankruptcy in Fort Lauderdale, saying she had $32 million in litigation claims as her assets.
There are some who say it was a good idea, legally, for her to file bankruptcy. It may have held back some orders from the New York judges who are still overseeing her conflict with the foundation. Unfortunately for the would-be heiress, it did not quite go that way.
Currently, the woman would like to be released from the bankruptcy court. The foundation is attempting to have her case converted to a Chapter 7. A trustee was set up to oversee her estate. One reason this was allowed, sources informed, is that the litigant was not insuring her property. A significant piece of said property was her Fort Lauderdale home, which has been assessed at $1.68 million.
The litigant filed a personal Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February. She has no attorney representing her. At the time of the filing, she claimed to have only $614,000 in assets.
It is difficult to gather further information on the woman – New York Probate Lawyers were unable to contact her and her Fort Lauderdale house appears abandoned.
According to the litigant, however, someone killed her uncle in 1990, after he learned someone was stealing from him. She attempted to get her uncle’s body exhumed in 2007, but a judge denied her request.
The ice cream chain owner started with only one delivery truck and expanded to more than 800 stores by the time of his death. Now based in Atlanta, the company can boast more than 500 franchised and food service locations. NY Estate Planning Lawyers are advising clients in New York City and Staten Island to be aware of this situation and take care not to wind up the same.
The company is part of an even larger company that franchises and operates more than 3,200 locations with such famous names as Cinnabon, Schlotzsky’s, and Auntie Annie’s Pretzels not only in the United States, but in 35 other countries as well.

Continue reading "South Florida Woman’s Fight for Inheritance Ends Up in Bankruptcy Court" »

During one of the state of Illinois’ largest ever tax increases; the new public act appears to contain a nice loophole for the wealthy deceased, said a New York Estate Planning lawyer.

Earlier this year the Governor of Illinois signed into law the Public Act 096-1496, the Taxpayer Accountability and Budget Stabilization Act.

Aside from increasing state income taxes on individuals and corporations, [it] reinstated the Illinois estate tax effective January 1, 2011, with a $2,000,000 exemption.

The estate tax in Illinois, which is not independent, is directly tied to the federal estate tax and is known as a “pick-up” estate tax.

Before EGTRRA, which was enacted in 2001, states that had a “pick-up” estate tax enjoyed a federal credit for state death taxes. Until 2010, Illinois incurred no federal state death tax credits, which caused a problem for taxpayers who assumed EGTRRA had continued to hold these estate taxes.

A New York Estate Planning Lawyer explained that the Illinois Attorney general had issued a warning last year about a possible reinstituted estate tax even though there currently is not one. He added that the Governor’s new law protects this possibility.

The new law clearly states that 2010 Illinois descendants will have no estate tax. Those who die after 2010, however, may be subject to a tax but have an exemption of up to $2 million. In the Bronx and Staten Island these changes are being studied to see how they might effect estates in NY.

Continue reading "Estate Tax Laws in Illinois worth looking into, writes a New York Probate Lawyer." »

The Estate Planning community is in a buzz over a new tax law approved by president Obama in late December of 2010. The Tax Relief, Unemployment Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010, or TRA 2010 for short, is a “game-changer,” one New York Estate Planning Lawyer is saying. In the past, the entire estate planning business revolved around estate taxes, and how those taxes were applied. In light of the new law, these taxes represent a much smaller hurdle to the industry at large. Lawyers in The Bronx and Staten Island are very aware that laws can change at any time.

If you are a New York Estate Planning Lawyer, and are considering giving your congressional representative a thank-you call, you are certainly not alone; but I would caution you to first read the fine print of the law. While no law is ever completely permanent, this law comes with an expiration date. After two years, the law is slated for review. If it is not reviewed and reinstated at that point, then estate tax law will effectively be reset to the levels present before the law was enacted.

On the other side of the equation, one New York Estate Planning Lawyer claims that this new law sounds the death knell for the Estate Tax in general. He contends that under the New TRA law, the value of collectible Estate Taxes is now so small as to be almost negligible, and would be a waste of IRS manpower to even bother to collect. Only time will tell whether the new law will act as a temporary tax relief mechanism, or as a stepping stone to Estate Tax repeal.

Don’t wait until it’s too late to make decisions about your financial legacy. A New York Estate Planning Attorney is one call away, and can help bring peace of mind to you and your loved ones that they will be taken care of, and that your wishes will be carried out as you intend.

Continue reading "New Tax Law Changes the Game " »