The Appellate Division of the Fourth Department has upheld the decision of  the Erie County Surrogate which dismissed objections to the nomination of an  executor in the Matter of the Estate of Carmen J. Russo reported at 954N.Y.S.2d 395 (A.D. 4 dept 2012). The decedent’s daughter filed objections to probate, claiming that the proposed executor had a potential conflict of interest which would prevent serving as a fiduciary.Continue Reading Appellate Court Upholds Choice Of Executor

New York County Surrogate Nora Anderson has denied summary judgment and ordered a trial to determine  whether or not letters testamentary issued in 1979 should be revoked and a will made one week later in 1978 admitted to probate in its place. The case, The Will Of  Elmer H. Bobst is reported in today’s New York Law Journal. The will offered by the objectants  was recently discovered by the decedent’s great granddaughter and it differs markedly from the one originally admitted to probate. The estate was worth more than ten million dollars 34 years ago.Continue Reading Court Denies Summary Judgment Where Ancient Wills Clash 34 Years After One Was Admitted To Probate

Your lawblogger frequently gets questions about how to obtain records of an estate. The Surrogate’s Court is a court of public record and every document filed is available to anyone. You can get copies of the entire estate of your Aunt Minnie who died in 1912 if that is what you would like. The difficulty…

An article by Dennis Kennedy in this month’s ABA Journal poses some interesting questions about our "digital estate". Keeping in mind that the "e" in email stands for "evidence" and  "eternal", it is a sure bet that our on line presence will outlive us. That will apply to our email accounts, social networks, and all of the public, private and commercial places where we leave a record of our coming and going on line.Continue Reading Death And Your Emails

It is generally known and accepted that the executor of an estate may be surcharged for improper or excessive expenses incurred in the administration of the estate. That is what happened when the executor of the estate of Ann M Kadah surcharged $35,000 by the Surrogate of Onondaga County, John J. Elliott. Surrogate Elliott, however…

Everybody seems to have a fascination with celebrities — even when they have died. Your lawblogger has reported on controversies and conundrums arising after the deaths of Whitney Huston, James Brown Rosa Parks and others. Recently, we have seen a spate of stories concerning the estate of Michael Jackson, the "King of Pop".

Here is…

An article in today’sSan Antonio Express News gives  an important reminder to revise your Will (and revocable trusts where applicable) when you are divorced. As in Texas , New York law provides that an immediate legal consequence of a judgment of divorce is that each party automatically disinherits the other. Numerous legal relationships are instantly extinguished. Joint accounts with right of survivorship are converted into joint accounts in common. Ownership of real property which was originally as tenants by the entirety (where there is an automatic right of survivorship between husband and wife) are converted into tenancies in commnon,.Certain provisions in a Will or revocable trust may not longer be desirable.Continue Reading Divorce Requires You To Revise Your Will

In spite of all of the claims and controversy swirling around the death of the entertainment icon Whitney Houston, her will shows that she planned ahead and took steps to insure that her daughter Bobbi Kristina would be financially protected and provided for. As fellow blogger Bradley Anderson reports here,  Houston was aware…