The following article is adapted from written materials created for a Pennsylvania Bar Institute “webinar” of the same name, catalog #11095 (3/10/2020). The Treasury Department has published final regulations on the changes to the federal estate and gift tax basic...
Daniel Evans
The COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) contagion is starting to affect court operations in Pennsylvania. By an administrative order dated March 12, 2020, the Montgomery County Orphans’ Court has suspended the call of the audit list in open court and has adopted … Continue reading
The Required Minimum Distribution Webcalculator has been updated to incorporate the changes made by the SECURE Act (Division O of P.L. 116-94). Specifically: The required beginning age for lifetime distributions has been changed from 70-1/2 to 72 for persons who … Continue reading
Judgment on the pleadings in an action for ejectment will be granted where the allegation of a common law marriage is based solely on cohabitation and an employer’s classification of one of the parties as a “domestic partner.” The grant … Continue reading
The decedent’s inter vivos trust directed the division of the trust into a marital deduction trust and nonmarital trust, but no marital trust was necessary because the gross estate was less than the federal estate tax exclusion amount. The administration … Continue reading
Executor is surcharged for distributions to individuals when the will made no specific gifts to anyone and the distributions were in violation of the provisions of the decedent’s will. Jean Goodwin Estate, 10 Fid.Rep.3d 29 (Montgomery O.C. 2019). … Continue reading
On an appeal from the decree of the Register denying probate of a photocopy of a will, the appeal will be upheld when the proponent is able to produce the original will and prove the will by the testimony of … Continue reading
Deed of decedent’s property to administrator individually, executed two months before being appointed administrator, was voidable and voided by the court, and the mortgage of the property executed after letters were granted, but signed by administrator in her individual capacity, … Continue reading
The presumption that a child born during a marriage is the child of both parents applies even in same-sex marriages, and so the non-birth parent has standing in a dependency hearing over the child. In the Interest of: A.M., a … Continue reading
Although a nonprofit corporation formed as a volunteer fire company had been decertified and could no longer fight fires in accordance with its original charitable purposes, involuntary dissolution and cy pres would not be applied when the corporation continues to … Continue reading