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, the Attorney General could not enforce the application of cy pres in the absence of a showing as to what assets of the corporation were “donated, granted, or devised” from an outside source “in trust.” In re: Independent Fire Co. No. 1, No. 1489 C.D. 2018 (Cmwlth Ct. 2/5/2020), aff’g on other grounds, 9 Fid.Rep.3d 20 (Lycoming Co. O.C. 2018).
The New York State Bar Association has released an ethics opinion stating that a lawyer may not dispose of wills even when the testators’ locations and circumstances are unknown, and that the lawyer must safeguard the wills indefinitely unless the law provides an alternative. New York State Bar Association Committee on Professional Ethics Opinion 1182 (1/23/2020).
A few comments:
- The opinion discusses the possibility of filing wills with the Surrogate’s Court, which is allowed by statute in New York. There is no comparable statute in Pennsylvania, and there is no authority requiring (or allowing) a Register of Wills to accept a will when the testator might be living, might have died outside of Pennsylvania, and might have revoked the will by a later will.
- The opinion relies on Model Rule of Professional Conduct 1.15, which relates to safeguarding property. But is the “property” the physical will or the testamentary intent expressed in the will? At a recent southeast Pennsylvania regional meeting of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, a fellow of the college reported that her firm, after repeated attempts to contact the testator, and after a suitable period of time, will destroy the testator’s will but will also create a contemporaneous record of the destruction of the will so that a copy of the will (saved electronically) could be admitted to probate in the unlikely event that the will was ever actually needed.
[DBE (7/21/2024): This article has not yet been updated to reflect the final regulations published at 89 F.R. 58886 (7/19/2024)., the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (Division T of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, P.L. 117-328), or Notice 2023-54, 2023-31 I.R.B….
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I’ve seen more than one article recommending that, when we (meaning the public generally and not just lawyers) write the year on checks and other documents, we should write out the whole year, “2020,” and not just the last two digits, “20.”
The reasons is that, if you write only “20,” the date can be altered by just adding two more digits at the end, so that “20” could easily become “2019” or “2021.” (There was reportedly a similar concern in 1919.)
I’m not sure what advantage there could be in backdating (or postdating) a check by one year, but writing out the full year does no harm, and takes very little in the way of time or ink (or printer toner), and so seems like a good idea.
I recently learned that, when subscribers log onto this site, they don’t see the home page, but a “profile” or “dashboard” page which I found to be both confusing and useless.
I’ve reconfigured the site so that, after logging in, subscribers will next see the home page.
I also found that there was no way to log out after logging it, and so I added a “Log Out” choice on the main menu.
I hope that these changes improve the experience of using this site.
It was previously reported that new Orphans’ Court forms, and new forms for use before the Register of Wills, had been posted to the collection of Orphans’ Court forms on the pacourts.us website, to be effective January 1, 2020. It now appears that there is a problem with two of the forms.
New Form RW-04 (“Oath of Non-subscribing Winess(es)”) and new Form RW-05 (“Oath of Witness(es) to Will Executed by Mark”) include both jurats for execution of the oaths in the Register’s office and jurats for execution of the oaths before a notary public outside of the Register’s office. However, the relevant statute, 20 Pa.C.S. § 3154, requires that those oaths be taken either before the Register or, if taken outside of Pennsylvania, by a public officer of the other jurisdiction having duties similar to those of the Register.
The new forms are still usable, but practitioners should not be misled into thinking that the oaths can be taken before a notary public outside of the Register’s office.
The Supreme Court has entered an order adopting a new Pa.O.C. Rule 1.40 which applies Pa.R.C.P. 240 (“In Forma Pauperis“) to Orphans’ Court proceedings, to be effective April 1, 2020. Rule 14.8, on guardianship reporting, has also been amended to include a note that cross-references Pa.R.J.A. 510, which governs the filing of inventories and reports under the Guardianship Tracking System. The report of the Orphans’ Court Procedural Rules Committee has also been published. “In Re: Order Adopting Rule 1.40 and Amending the Note to Rule 14.8 of the Pennsylvania Orphans’ Court Rules,” No. 820 Rules Doc. (1/2/2020), 50 Pa.B. 306 (1/18/2020).
Among the more significant tax law changes made by the “Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019,” also known as the SECURE Act, enacted as Division O of P.L. 116-94, H.R. 1865, the “Further Consolidated Appropriations Act,…
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HTML Version Copyright 2018-2025 Daniel B. Evans. All rights reserved.
— Short Term Rates for 2019 —
| Month | Annual | Semiann. | Quarterly | Monthly |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan. | 2.72% | 2.70% | 2.69% | 2.68% |
| Feb. | 2.57% | 2.55% | 2.54% | 2.54% |
| March | 2.55% | 2.53% | 2.52% | 2.52% |
| April | 2.52% | 2.50% | 2.49% | 2.49% |
| May | 2.39% | 2.38% | 2.37% | 2.37% |
| June | 2.37% | 2.36% | 2.35% | 2.35% |
| July | 2.13% | 2.12% | 2.11% | 2.11% |
| Aug. | 1.91% | 1.90% | 1.90% | 1.89% |
| Sept. | 1.85% | 1.84% | 1.84% | 1.83% |
| Oct. | 1.69% | 1.68% | 1.68% | 1.67% |
| Nov. | 1.68% | 1.67% | 1.67% | 1.66% |
| Dec. | 1.61% | 1.60% | 1.60% | 1.59% |
— Mid Term Rates for 2019 —
| Month | Annual | Semiann. | Quarterly | Monthly |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan. | 2.89% | 2.87% | 2.86% | 2.85% |
| Feb. | 2.63% | 2.61% | 2.60% | 2.60% |
| March | 2.59% | 2.57% | 2.56% | 2.56% |
| April | 2.55% | 2.53% | 2.52% | 2.52% |
| May | 2.37% | 2.36% | 2.35% | 2.35% |
| June | 2.38% | 2.37% | 2.36% | 2.36% |
| July | 2.08% | 2.07% | 2.06% | 2.06% |
| Aug. | 1.87% | 1.86% | 1.86% | 1.85% |
| Sept. | 1.78% | 1.77% | 1.77% | 1.76% |
| Oct. | 1.51% | 1.50% | 1.50% | 1.50% |
| Nov. | 1.59% | 1.58% | 1.58% | 1.57% |
| Dec. | 1.69% | 1.68% | 1.68% | 1.67% |
— Long Term Rates for 2019 —
| Month | Annual | Semiann. | Quarterly | Monthly |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan. | 3.15% | 3.13% | 3.12% | 3.11% |
| Feb. | 2.91% | 2.89% | 2.88% | 2.87% |
| March | 2.91% | 2.89% | 2.88% | 2.87% |
| April | 2.89% | 2.87% | 2.86% | 2.85% |
| May | 2.74% | 2.72% | 2.71% | 2.70% |
| June | 2.76% | 2.74% | 2.73% | 2.72% |
| July | 2.50% | 2.48% | 2.47% | 2.47% |
| Aug. | 2.33% | 2.32% | 2.31% | 2.31% |
| Sept. | 2.21% | 2.20% | 2.19% | 2.19% |
| Oct. | 1.86% | 1.85% | 1.85% | 1.84% |
| Nov. | 1.94% | 1.93% | 1.93% | 1.92% |
| Dec. | 2.09% | 2.08% | 2.07% | 2.07% |
Revised O.C. Forms OC-1 through OC-5 and RW-03 through RW-10, that were approved as part of “Order Amendment Rules 1.7, 1.8, 2.1, 2.5, 2.7, 3.5, 3.7, 4.3, 4.6, 5.1, 5.3, 5.4, 7.1, 10.1, 10.5, and the Index of the Appendix of the Pennsylvania Orphans’ Court Rules, and Rescinding and Replacing Forms OC-1 Through OC-5 and RW-03 Through RW-10,” No. 808 Supreme Court Rules Doc. (10/31/2019), 49 Pa.B. 6804 (11/16/2019), have been posted to the collection of Orphans’ Court forms on the pacourts.us website. These new forms are effective 1/1/2020.
See “Amendments to Orphans’ Court Rules” and “Which Trust Beneficiaries Get Notices of Estate Administration?” for comments on some of the changes made by the new rules.