RES PUBLICAE

In McDaniel v. Kendrick, Op. No. 4643 (S.C. Ct. App. filed December 31, 2009), the South Carolina Court of Appeals decided a real estate dispute with a tangential relationship to estate planning. Oftentimes, a mom or dad will decide as part of their estate planning to transfer a home to a child as a gift, with the expectation that the parent would continue to reside in the home for the rest otheir lives. This might be done for medicaid qualification purposes (assuming medicaid is not expected to be necessary for at least five years), or estate tax purposes. What happens however is the relationship between parent and child or parent and spouse of child deteriorates, and the parent is evicted from the home.

There is an equitable legal doctrine known as a constructive trust that could come to the parent’s rescue in the above situation. While the McDaniel case did not concern a home transfer for the purpose of estate planning, it involved (more…)

First installment of Do-it-Yourself estate planning disasters.  Client X has three children named High, Dry, and Helpful, and no surviving spouse. Helpful is so named because she is so very helpful in caring for mom. 

So helpful in fact, that Helpful moved in with mother a few years before mom’s death to take care of her, oh, and she (more…)

Here’s a new blog category.  I am going to attempt to collect examples of Do-It-Yourself estate plans that have led to disastrous results. I think that the internet age has led to a boom for do-it-yourselfers in many fields, and this of course includes estate planning. With Google and Legal Zoom at your finger tips, what could possibly go wrong? My guess would be inadvertantly disinheriting loved ones and astronomical litigation fees, but let’s see if we can find out for sure. Stay tuned.