The latest (10/21/2020) draft of instructions to the Schedule K-1 for Form 1041 provides guidance for reporting excess 67(e) deductions by beneficiaries of terminating estates and trusts that is similar to the guidance that was previously reported from the IRS … Continue reading
Daniel Evans
Westmoreland County has rescinded local Orphans’ Court Rule WO5.17, relating to small estate petitions. “Orphans’ Court Rules; No. 3 of 2020” (9/29/2020), 50 Pa.B. 5843 (10/24/2020). … Continue reading
Because 20 Pa.C.S. § 6111.2(b)(4) does not require that a post-divorce “designation of a former spouse as a beneficiary” be in writing, and because the decedent “substantially complied” with the life insurance policy provisions for beneficiary designations by orally advising … Continue reading
Executor and her attorney were surcharged for excessive and unreasonable attorney fees because the attorney time records that were submitted had the descriptions of services redacted and so they failed to meet their burden of proof. Stoughton Estate, 10 Fid.Rep.3d … Continue reading
Costs incurred in selling decedent’s home were substantiated by a HUD settlement statement, and objections to minor discrepancies between the account and the amounts shown on the settlement statement were de minimis and overruled. Objection to attorney fee of $1,000, … Continue reading
The administrator of an estate cannot require an alleged child of the decedent to take a DNA test, and the child may rely on the other factors in 20 Pa.C.S. § 2107(c) to establish paternity. Ackley, Sr. Estate, 10 Fid.Rep.3d … Continue reading
When a charitable nonprofit corporation did not agree to maintain a mosaic on the outside of the building it owns, the preservation of the mosaic would be expensive and is not within the charity’s exempt purposes, and the decision of … Continue reading
The Internal Revenue Service has announced federal rates for the month of November under §§ 1274 and 7520 of the Internal Revenue Code (“IRC”), one of which will be the lowest rate since the IRS began publishing federal interest rates … Continue reading
Preliminary objections to an answer and new matter is not a pleading allowed by Pa. O.C. Rules and is improper. Further, a party does not lack standing merely because the petition fails to name them as an interested party. Mahlstadt … Continue reading
An agent’s change of an IRA beneficiary was invalid when the decedent was obligated under a divorce settlement agreement to name his children as beneficiaries. Trembley Agent for Lasser, 10 Fid.Rep.3d 229 (Chester O.C. 2020). … Continue reading